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.anuary,  1921  Number  184 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

RECORD 


EXTENSION  SERIES  No.  41 


STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 


North  Carolina  Club 
Year  Book  1919-1920 


PUBLISHED  MONTHLY  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY 

Entered  as  Second-class  Matter  at  the  Postoffice  at 

CHAPEL  HILL,  N.  0. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

RECORD 


JANUARY,  1921 
NUMBER  184 


State  Reconstruction  Studies  of  the 

North  Carolina  Club  at  the  University  of 

North  Carolina 


N 


FACULTY  COMMITTEE  ON  EXTENSION 

Louis  R.  WILSON  L.  A.  WILLIAMS  E.  C.  BRANSON 

N.  W.  WALKER  J.  H.  HANFORD  P.  H.  DAGGETT 

M.  C.  S.  NOBLE  E.  R.  RANKIN  H.  W.  ODUM 

D.  D.  CARROLL  E.  W.  KNIGHT  P.  J.  WEAVER 

W.  W.  PIERSON,  JR. 


CHAPEL  HILL 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY 

1921 


The  Bureau  of  Extension  of  the  University 
of  North  Carolina 


The  University  of  North  Carolina  through  its  Bureau  of  Extension 
offers  to  the  people  of  the  State: 

I.  GENERAL  INFORMATION:  Concerning  books,  readings,  essays, 
study  outlines,  and  subjects  of  general  interest.  Literature 
will  be  loaned  from  the  Library  upon  the  payment  of  trans- 
portation charges  each  way. 

II.  INSTRUCTION  BY  LECTURES:  Popular  or  technical  lectures,  series 
of  lectures  for  clubs  or  study  centers,  and  addresses  for  com- 
mencement or  other  special  occasions  will  be  furnished  any 
community  which  will  pay  the  traveling  expenses  of  the 
lecturer. 

III.  HOME   STUDY  COURSES:    For  teachers   in   educational   subjects 

and  for  the  general  public  in  college  branches. 

IV.  GUIDANCE   IN    DEBATE  AND   DECLAMATION:    Through   the    High 

School  Debating  Union,  special  bulletins  and  handbooks,  and 
material  loaned  from  the  Library. 

V.  COUNTY  ECONOMIC  AND  SOCIAL  SURVEYS:  For  use  by  counties  in 
their  effort  to  improve  their  economic  and  social  condition. 

VI.  MUNICIPAL  REFERENCE  AIDS:  For  use  in  studying  and  drafting 
municipal  legislation  and  assistance  in  municipal  government. 

VII.    EDUCATIONAL  INFORMATION  AND  ASSISTANCE:  For  teachers,  prin- 
cipals, superintendents,  school  committees  and  boards. 

VIII.     CLUB  STUDY  OUTLINES:  For  members  of  women's  clubs  or  civic 
organizations  pursuing  special  lines  of  study. 

IX.  INFORMATION  CONCERNING  COUNTRY  HOME  CONVENIENCES:  For 
rural  homes  in  North  Carolina. 

X.  COMMUNITY  DRAMA  SERVICE:  Guidance  and  direction  in  the 
writing  and  production  of  community  plays,  pageants  and 
festivals. 

XI.  GUIDANCE  IN  COMMUNITY  Music:  For  schools  and  community 
organizations. 

XII.    DESIGN  AND  IMPROVEMENT  OF  SCHOOL  GROUNDS:  For  schools  and 

civic  organizations. 
For  full  information,  address 

THE  BUREAU  OF  EXTENSION, 
CHAPEL  HILL,  N.  C. 


THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB 

YEAR  BOOK,  1919-1920 

UNIVERSITY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA 


STATE  RECONSTRUCTION 
STUDIES 


51044? 


NEW  MEASURES  AND  NEW  MEN 

JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL 

New  times  demand  new  measures  and  new  men; 
The  world  advances  and  in  time  outgrows 
The  laws  that  in  our  fathers'  day  were  best; 
And,  doubtless,  after  us  some  purer  scheme 
Will  be  shaped  out  by  wiser  men  than  we, 
Made  wiser  by  the  steady  growth  of  truth. 
The  time  is  ripe,  and  rotten  ripe,  for  change; 
Then  let  it  come;  I  hare  no  dread  of  what 
Is  called  for  by  the  instinct  of  mankind. 
Nor  think  I  that  God's  world  would  fall  apart 
Because  we  tear  a  parchment  more  or  less. 
Truth  is  eternal,  but  her  effluence, 
With  endless  change,  is  fitted  to  the  hour; 
Her  mirror  is  turned  forward,  to  reflect 
The  promise  of  the  future,  not  the  past. 


THE  COMMON  PROBLEM 

ROBERT  BROWINNG 

The  common  problem,  yours,  mine,  everyone's, 
Is  not  to  fancy  what  were  fair  in  life, 
Provided  it  could  be— but  finding  first 
What  may  be,  find  how  to  make  it  fair 
Up  to  our  means. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Page 

Foreword  7 

E.  C.  Branson. 

1.  The  State  Reconstruction  Commission 9 

Winston-Salem  Journal. 
Study  Outlines  and  Bibliographies 11 

2.  The  North  Carolina  Club 14 

E.  C.  Branson 

3.  Public  Education  in  Carolina-- 16 

H.  F.  Latshaw. 
Study  Outlines  and  Bibliographies _ 21 

4.  Public  Health  in  Carolina 

County  Health  Departments,  Whole-Time  Officers,  and 

Public-Health  Nurses 26 

Blackwell  Markham. 

Rural  Public  Health  Work .... 27 

E.  C.  Branson. 
County  or  County-Group  Public  Hospitals 31 

John  S.  Terry. 
Health  and  Sanitation  as  Required  Subjects  in  All 

State-Aided   Schools   33 

A.  R.  Anderson. 

Recreation  for  Rural  People 37 

Gary  Lanier  Harrington. 
Study  Outlines  and  Bibliographies .... _ 38 

5.  Transportation  and  Communication  in  Carolina 

State   Highway   Policies    41 

S.  O.  Worthington. 
Motor  Truck  Service,  the  Country  Parcels  Post,  and 

Interurban  Electric  Railways  44 

I.  M.  Abelkop. 
Railways,  Inland  Waterways,  and  Port  Facilities 50 

Phillip  Hettleman. 
Country  Telephone  Systems 52 

B.  E.  Weathers. 

Study  Outlines  and  Bibliographies 54 

6.  Home  and  Farm  Ownership. 

The   Facts   and   Their   Significance 58 

W.  R.  Kirkman. 
Our  Homeless  Multitudes  59 

E.  C.  Branson. 
Remedial   Measures   -.. 70 

Myron  T.  Green. 
Country-Home    Comforts    and    Conveniences 76 

R.  R.  Hawfield. 
Study  Outlines   and   Bibliographies 79 


7.  *Race  Relationships' 

The  Negro's  Point  of  View 83 

A.  W.  Staley. 
The   Southern  View 86 

Brantley  Womble. 
The  Detached  View 90 

L.  J.  Phipps. 
Committee    Conclusions „ 93 

G.  D.  Crawford. 
Study  Outlines  and  Bibliographies 95 

8.  Public  Welfare  in  North  Carolina 

Child  Welfare  98 

C.  T.  Boyd. 
Child  Delinquency  and  the  Juvenile  Court 101 

W.  H.  Bobbitt. 
Prison   Policies   and   Reforms 103 

R.  E.  Boyd. 
Child  Labor  and  Compulsory  Education :     Introduction. 

T.  J.  Brawley. 
Mill  Village  Problems 110 

H.  G.  Kincaid. 
Child  Labor  in  North  Carolina 114 

T.  J.  Brawley. 
Study  Outlines   and   Bibliographies 119 

9.  Organized  Business  and  Life 

Corporate  Organization  125 

J.  V.  Baggett. 
Co-operative  Organization  130 

C.  I.  Taylor. 
Co-operative  Business  and  Credit  Unions 135 

E.  C.  Branson. 
Civic  Organization:     Our  Towns  and  Cities 141 

W.  E.  Price. 
Study  Outlines  and  Bibliographies 154 

10.  Civic  Reforms  in  North  Carolina 

An  Executive  Budget  and  a  State  Auditing  Bureau 162 

M.  M.  Jernigan. 

Administration  Consolidation,  the  Short  Ballot,  the  Secret 
Ballot,  Our  State  Primary  Laws 168 

W.  D.  Harris. 

Community  Organization,  Incorporation,  and  Local 
Self-Rule    175 

J.  T.  Wilson. 

Unified  County  Government,  Uniform  County  Accounting 
and  Reporting,  State- Wide  Auditing  of  County  Accounts 179 

Charles  L.  Nichols. 
Study  Outlines  and  Bibliographies 185 

11.  The  New  Day  in  Carolina 190 

E.  C.  Branson. 


FOREWORD 

The  North  Carolina  Club  at  the  University  of  North  Carolina  has 
been  busy  during  the  last  five  years  studying  the  economic,  social 
and  civic  problems  of  the  home  state.  Its  published  Year  Books  to 
date  are  (1)  North  Carolina:  Resources,  Advantages  and  Opportuni- 
ties, 93  pp.,  (2)  Wealth  and  Welfare  in  North  Carolina,  140  pp.,  and 
(3)  County  Government  and  County  Affairs  in  North  Carolina,  188  pp. 

The  Club  is  a  volunteer  organization  of  students  and  faculty  mem- 
bers— at  present  13  faculty  members  and  105  students,  representing 
46  counties. 

State  Reconstruction  Studies 

This  year  the  North  Carolina  Club  is  working  a-team  with  the  State 
Reconstruction  Commission  of  twenty-five  members  appointed  by  Gov- 
ernor T.  W.  Bickett  in  early  October,  1919.  The  fields  of  investigation 
by  the  Commission  and  the  Club  are  identical.  The  layout  of  work  by 
special  committees  is  the  same  in  both  organizations.  The  committee 
work  of  the  commission  was  planned  for  busy  men  of  affairs  in  the 
state-at-large;  in  the  Club  it  was  done  by  university  students,  aided 
by  faculty  members  specially  chosen  by  the  various  committees.  The 
chairman  of  the  steering  committee  of  the  club  was  appointed  by  the 
Governor  as  a  member  of  the  commission,  and  the  president  of  the 
club  was  unanimously  elected  an  unofficial  member  at  the  first  meeting 
of  the  commission  on  October  28.  On  the  same  date  the  chairmen 
of  the  club  committees  were  invited  to  sit  in  with  the  commission 
committees  as  they  meet  from  time  to  time  after  the  Christmas  holi- 
days. This  high  honor  was  accorded  the  club  in  a  motion  made  by 
Hon.  W.  N.  Everett,  of  Rockingham,  as  follows: 

"Because  the  North  Carolina  Club  at  the  University  has  for  five  years 
been  giving  concentrated,  detailed  attention  to  the  economic,  social, 
and  civic  concerns  of  the  home  state,  and  is  therefore  unique  in  this 
or  any  other  state  of  the  Union,  it  is 

"Moved:  That  the  club  be  declared  eligible  to  elect  from  its  mem- 
bership of  students  one  unofficial  delegate  to  the  State  Reconstruction 
Commission  and  one  delegate  to  each  of  the  commission  committees, 
to  sit  with  this  commission  and  its  committees,  and  to  learn  further 
about  the  problems  of  the  state  at  first  hand." 

A  Rare  Distinction 

Here  is  a  unique  situation.  Never  before  in  the  history  of  colleges 
and  universities,  so  far  as  we  know,  have  young  men  busy  mastering 
great  subjects  within  campus  walls  been  given  the  opportunity  to  come 


8          ...     STATES'  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

face  to  face  with  great  situations  in  a  commonwealth  at  a  critical 
era  in  its  life,  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  their  elders  in  the  world  of  men 
and  affairs,  to  learn  at  first  hand  of  the  work-a-day  problems  of  a 
state,  and  thus  to  relate  culture  to  citizenship  and  learning  to  life. 
It  is  an  epoch-making  experience  for  these  young  men.  What  they 
will  now  contribute  to  a  state  reconstruction  program  may  he  neg- 
ligible; but  what  they  will  derive  from  this  unique  working  relation- 
ship may  not  impossibly  be  an  asset  of  large  proportions  for  the  state 
when  they  come  into  public  life  and  leadership  in  the  years  ahead. 

The  Working  Program 

The  body  of  this  bulletin  consists  of  the  program  of  the  State 
Commission  as  it  has  been  organized  by  the  club  for  its  work  during 
the  present  college  year.  The  details  show  (1)  the  fields  of  investi- 
gation and  the  special  committees,  and  (2)  the  bibliographies  of  ma- 
terial ready  at  hand  in  the  seminar  room  of  the  department  of  rural 
social  science  at  the  University.  These  committees  rendered  tentative 
reports  as  per  the  schedule  dates  of  the  club,  but  they  were  continuing 
committees  and  the  final  matured  reports  were  surrendered  to  the 
collaboration  committee  of  the  club  on  October  1,  1920.  Meanwhile 
they  held  sessions  of  their  own  and  as  many  as  they  pleased,  in  order  to 
turn  in  at  last  such  reports  as  would  represent  wisdom,  justice,  and 
moderation  on  the  highest  levels  possible  to  youth  and  immaturity. 

I  may  say  in  conclusion  that  the  bibliographies  were  not  intended  to 
cover  these  great  subjects  in  complete  schematic  sort;  they  merely 
brought  to  our  club  members  the  material  already  at  hand  and  best 
worth  the  while  of  busy  students  whose  spare  time  was  small  in  the 
rush  of  a  college  year. 

E.  C.  BRANSON, 

Chairman  Steering  Committee  of  the  North  Carolina  Club. 
Chapel  Hill,  N.  C.,  December  24,  1920. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  "N.  C.  9 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  PROGRAM 

The  personnel  of  the  State  Reconstruction  Commission  appointed 
by  Governor  T.  W.  Bickett  in  October,  1919,  was  as  follows: 

C.  F.  Tomlinson,  manufacturer,  High  Point;  Julius  Cone,  manu- 
facturer, Greensboro;  Charles  C.  Page,  labor  representative,  Raleigh; 
W.  H.  Newell,  railroad  official,  Rocky  Mount;  W.  L.  Poteat,  college 
president,  Wake  Forest;  C.  F.  Harvey,  merchant  and  banker,  Kins- 
ton;  C.  B.  Armstrong,  manufacturer,  Gastonia;  E.  C.  Branson,  teacher, 
Chapel  Hill;  Archibald  Johnson,  editor,  Thomasville;  J.  Bryan  Grimes, 
farmer  and  state  officer,  Raleigh;  J.  0.  Carr,  lawyer,  Wilmington; 
H.  R.  Starbuck,  judge  and  lawyer,  Winston-Salem ;  Clarence  Clark, 
farmer  and  merchant,  Clarkton;  Cyrus  Thompson,  physician,  Jack 
sonville;  J.  F.  Diggs,  farmer,  Rockingham;  R.  W.  Christian,  farmer, 
Fayetteville;  James  H.  Pou,  lawyer,  Raleigh;  A.  L.  Brooks,  lawyer, 
Greensboro;  Gilbert  T.  Stephenson,  lawyer  and  banker,  Winston- 
Salem;  Fred  L.  Seeley,  business  man,  Asheville;  B.  F.  Eagles,  farmer, 
Macclesfield;  E.  C.  Duncan,  banker,  Raleigh;  W.  C.  Ruffin,  manufac- 
turer, Mayodan;  E.  S.  Parker,  lawyer,  Graham;  W.  N.  Everett,  manu- 
facturer and  merchant,  Rockingham. 

Chairman,  Governor  T.  W.  Bickett;  Secretary,  and  Chairman  of  the 
Steering  Committee,  E.  C.  Branson. 

Commission  Organization 

Governor  Bickett  requested  the  State  Reconstruction  Commission 
to  hold  its  first  meeting  in  the  Senate  Chamber  in  Raleigh  on  October 
28.  He  asked  each  of  the  twenty-five  members,  who  represent  every 
class  of  our  citizenship,  to  prepare  and  bring  with  them  to  the  initial 
meeting  written  suggestions  relative  to  the  work  the  commission 
should  undertake  to  do. 

In  the  meantime,  on  the  Governor's  request,  Mr.  E.  C.  Branson,  a 
member  of  the  faculty  of  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  prepared 
a  tentative  working  program  for  the  commission's  consideration,  as 
follows: 

In  the  first  place,  Mr.  Branson,  who  is  himself  a  member  of  the 
commission,  would  have  that  body  consider  the  reasons  for  its  own 
existence.  These  are,  he  says:  (1)  the  quickening  effects  of  the  world 
war,  which  fundamentally  are  (a)  the  accelerated  cityward  drift  of 
country  populations,  decreasing  labor  in  our  farm  regions,  and  labor 
unrest  in  our  industrial  centers,  (b)  the  enormous  increase  in  prices 
received  by  producers  of  primary  and  secondary  wealth,  and  the  tragic 


10          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

high  cost  of  living,  in  city  centers  in  particular,  (c)  inflated  currency, 
inflated  credit,  real  and  pseudo  prosperity,  the  widespread  mania  of 
extravagance,  the  necessity  for  increased  production,  increased  thrift, 
and  a  noble  use  of  our  wealth,  (d)  the  sudden  expansion  of  the  mental 
horizon  of  the  masses,  and  their  manifest  willingness  to  consider  the 
large  concerns  of  democracy — taxation,  education,  health,  highways, 
and  civic  reforms,  along  with  the  final  values  of  life,  (e)  the  rising 
tide  of  race  antagonism;  and  (2)  the  economic,  social,  and  civic  ad- 
justments necessary  in  the  days  at  hand  and  ahead,  due  to  these 
foundational  disturbances. 

In  the  second  place,  the  commission,  in  his  opinion,  should  arrange 
to  take  stock  of  our  resources,  agencies  and  institutions — their  values 
and  deficiencies,  opportunities  and  possibilities,  in  order  to  determine 
definite  base  lines  of  progress  for  the  future;  to  prepare  a  compact 
body  of  wisely  determined  principles,  policies  and  plans  for  safe  com- 
monwealth development — all  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  development 
of  a  state  is  an  organic  process  and  not  a  mechanical  program;  to 
present  to  the  state  what  is  ideally  desirable  but  also  what  is  rea- 
sonably possible,  the  characteristic  genius  of  our  people  considered. 
In  short,  to  supplant  aimless  drift  with  reasoned  progress,  to  the  end 
that  North  Carolina  can  speedily  be  a  cleaner  place  for  children  to 
be  born  in,  a  safer  place  for  boys  and  girls  to  grow  up  in,  a  happier 
place  for  men  and  women  to  live  in,  and  a  more  joyous  place  for 
departing  souls  to  look  back  upon. 

Program  of  Work 

Touching  on  the  machinery  of  the  commission,  and  going  more  into 
detail  with  reference  to  the  work  ahead  of  it,  Mr.  Branson  would  have 
the  chairman  appoint  and  instruct  appropriate  committees,  (a)  to 
consider  particular  phases  of  life  and  business  in  North  Carolina,  (b) 
to  hold  separate  committee  sessions,  (c)  to  call  into  consultation  at 
such  meeting  the  thinkers  and  leaders  of  the  state,  and  (d)  to  report 
definite  committee  findings  to  the  commission  when  called  upon,  the 
full  and  final  report  of  the  commission  as  a  whole  to  be  given  to  the 
state  at  the  earliest  possible  date. 

These  committees,  if  they  follow  Mr.  Branson's  suggestions,  in  all 
their  deliberations  will  wisely  keep  in  mind  the  fact  that  North  Caro- 
lina is  dominantly  a  rural  state,  that  ten  years  ago  it  was  being 
urbanized  more  rapidly  than  thirty-six  other  states  in  the  Union,  and 
even  more  rapidly  during  the  war  period,  and  that,  therefore,  every 
problem  each  committee  considers  has  a  threefold  aspect — agricul- 
tural, industrial  and  urban. 

The  following  committees  seem  to  Mr.  Branson  to  box  the  compass 
of  fundamental  state  concerns:  (1)  Public  Education,  (2)  Public 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLTJB,  U.  OF  IN".  C.  11 

Health,  (3)  Transportation  and  Communication,  (4)  Home  and  Farm 
Ownership,  (5)  Economic,  Social  and  Civic  Organization,  (6)  Race 
Relations,  (7)  Public  Welfare,  (8)  Civic  Reforms,  State  and  local,  and 
(9)  A  Collaboration  Committee  whose  duty  it  is  to  receive  the  reports 
of  other  committees  and  to  organize  them  into  compact  form  for  the 
final  consideration  of  the  commission  as  a  whole. — The  Winston- 
Salem  Journal. 

The  commission  was  organized  on  October  28,  as  follows:  Chair- 
man, Governor  T.  W.  Bickett;  Secretary,  E.  C.  Branson;  Steering 
Committee,  C.  F.  Harvey,  Charles  C.  Page,  E.  S.  Parker,  James  H. 
Pou,  and  E.  C.  Branson,  Chairman. 


RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

A  section  exhibiting  (1)  the  suggested  outlines  for  club  committee 
investigations,  to  be  expanded  or  contracted  as  may  be  deemed  wise 
by  the  various  committees,  (2)  bibliographies  of  selected  books,  bul- 
letins, press  clippings,  and  the  like,  accumulated  in  the  seminar  room 
of  the  department  of  rural  social  science  at  the  University  of  North 
Carolina,  and  ready  at  hand  for  club  and  commission  committees. 

The  Subject  in  General 

Problems  of  reconstruction — Isaac  Lippincott.  Macmillan  Company, 
New  York.  340  pp. 

Reconstructing  America:  Our  Next  Big  Job — Edward  Wildman. 
The  Page  Company,  Boston.  422  pp. 

The  New  State — M.  F.  Follett.  Longmans,  Green  and  Company, 
New  York.  373  pp. 

American  Problems  of  Reconstruction — Edited  by  Elisha  M.  Fried- 
man. E.  P.  Button  Company,  New  York.  492  pp. 

Democracy  in  Reconstruction — Edited  by  Frederick  A.  Cleveland 
and  Joseph  Schafer.  Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  Boston.  506  pp. 

Some  Phases  of  What  is  Called  Reconstruction — Wm.  C.  Redfield, 
Secretary  of  Commerce.  Press  Service,  June  11,  1919. 

Evolution  of  Industrial  Society — R.  T.  Ely.  Macmillan  Company, 
New  York.  489  pp. 

The  British  Revolution  and  American  Democracy — Norman  Angell. 
B.  W.  Huebsch,  225  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York.  319  pp. 


12  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Modern  and  Contemporaneous  European  History — J.  Salwyn  Scha- 
piro.  Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  Boston.  766  pp. 

Report  of  the  British  Ministry  on  Reconstruction — University  Rural 
Social  Science  Files,  No.  338.02. 

Lloyd  George's  Program  for  England — Ibid. 

Emergency  Problems  in  England — Sir  Guy  Granet.  A  newspaper 
interview.  The  New  York  Times,  October  26,  1919. 

Social  Reconstruction — Reconstruction  Pamphlet  No.  1,  January, 
1919.  National  Catholic  War  Council,  Washington,  D.  C.  24  pp. 

The  Church  and  Social  Reconstruction,  Federal  Council  of  the 
Churches  of  Christ  in  America — The  Survey,  August  2,  1919.  112 
East  Nineteenth  Street,  New  York.  5  pp. 

Christianity  in  the  New  Age — E.  Herman.  Funk  and  Wagnalls 
Company,  New  York.  262  pp. 

Social  Christianity  in  the  New  Era — Chaplain  Thos.  Tiplady.  Mac- 
millan  Company. 

Fear  God  in  Your  Own  Village— Richard  Morse.  Henry  Holt  and 
Company,  New  York.  212  pp. 

Religious  Education  and  American  Democracy — Walter  Scott 
Athearn.  Pilgrim  Press,  Boston.  394  pp. 

The  Farmer  and  the  New  Day — Kenyon  L.  Butterfield.  Macmillan 
Company,  New  York.  311  pp. 

Reconstruction  Numbers  of  The  Survey,  April  12,  May  24,  May  31, 
June  7,  June  21,  October  4,  1919 — The  Survey,  112  East  Nineteenth 
Street,  New  York. 

Outline  Studies  in  Reconstruction  Problems — Associated  Press,  347 
Madison  Avenue,  New  York. 

Outline  Studies  of  the  Reconstruction  Period — Federal  Council  of 
the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America,  105  East  Twenty-second  Street, 
New  York.  39  pp. 

The  Problems  of  Peace  in  Our  Liberal  Colleges — Harry  A.  Garfield. 
University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  378. 

Library  of  Reconstruction — The  Sage  Foundation,  130  East  Twenty- 
second  Street,  New  York.  4  pp. 

The  New  Social  Order  in  America,  A  Study  Syllabus — Hornell  Hart, 
807  Neave  Building,  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  40  pp. 

Government  of  American  Cities,  by  W.  B.  Munro.  Macmillan  Com- 
pany, New  York,  N.  Y.  415  pp. 

Reports  on  Reconstruction 

Alabama,  The  Social  Problems  of — Hastings  H.  Hart,  at  the  request 
of  Governor  Charles  Henderson.  The  Sage  Foundation,  130  East 
Twenty-second  Street,  New  York.  87  pp. 

Legislative  Message  of  Governor  Thos.  E.  Kilby,  July  8, 

1919 — Legislative  Document  No.  7.  24  pp. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  13 

Florida,  A  Social  Welfare  Program — Hastings  H.  Hart  and  Clarence 
L.  Stonaker,  at  the  request  of  Governor  Sidney  J.  Catts.  The  Sage 
Foundation,  112  East  Twenty-second  Street,  New  York.  96  type- 
written pp.  (Out  of  print.) 

Kentucky,  The  Social  Problems  of — Kentucky  State  Council  of  De- 
fense, Inter-Southern  Building,  Louisville,  Ky.  120  pp. 

Mississippi,  The  Social  Progress  of — Hastings  H.  Hart  (in  prepara- 
tion). The  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  New  York. 

Development  Program  of  the  State  Landowners'  Association 

— Manufacturers'  Record,  September  18,  1919. 

North  Carolina,  Pressing  Needs  of  the  Present  Hour — Governor 
T.  W.  Bickett— University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  338.02. 

South  Carolina,  A  Social  Program  for — Hastings  H.  Hart,  at  the 
request  of  Governor  Richard  I.  Manning.  The  Russell  Sage  Founda- 
tion, New  York.  61  pp. 

Illinois,  Report  of  the  Efficiency  and  Economy  Committee — John  A. 
Fairlie,  Director,  Urbana,  111.  1051  pp. 

The  Civil  Administrative  Code — Compiled  by  Louis  L. 

Emerson,  Secretary  of  State,  Springfield,  111.  37  pp. 

Indiana,  Report  of  the  Reconstruction  and  Readjustment  Confer- 
ence—The Executive  Chamber,  Indianapolis. 

New  York,  Report  of  the  State  Reconstruction  Commission — The 
Executive  Chamber,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

Massachusetts,  Debates  and  Bulletins  of  the  Constitutional  Con- 
vention of  1917-18 — Executive  Office,  Boston,  Mass.  4  volumes. 

Michigan,  Report  of  the  State  Reconstruction  Commission — Stuart 
H.  Perry,  -Adrian,  Mich.,  Chairman.  26  pp. 

West  Virginia,  A  Suggested  Social  Program — Hastings  H.  Hart  and 
Clarence  L.  Stonaker.  The  Sage  Foundation,  New  York.  24  pp. 

Wisconsin,  Report  on  Reconstruction  by  a  special  Legislative  Com- 
mittee— Roy  P.  Wilcox,  Chairman.  Executive  Office,  Madison,  Wis. 
30  pp. 


14  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

CHAPTER  II 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB 

The  work  of  the  North  Carolina  Club  at  the  State  University  in 
1919-20  followed  the  lead  of  the  State  Reconstruction  Commission  and 
its  committees.  A  working  relationship  with  the  commission  was 
voted  to  the  club  on  October  28,  and  Mr.  J.  V.  Baggett,  the  club  presi- 
dent, was  elected  an  unofficial  member  of  the  State  Reconstruction 
Commission.  The  chairmen  of  the  club  committees  were  invited  to  sit 
with  the  commission  committees. 

The  club  members  thus  honored  were  the  pick  of  the  club  member- 
ship. 

Each  club  committee  chairman  chose  his  cabinet  of  conferees,  laid 
out  the  work  of  his  committee,  held  committee  meetings  at  will, 
and  passed  on  to  the  club  on  stated  schedule  dates  such  committee 
findings  as  the  committee  thought  fundamentally  necessary  to  progress 
under  the  new  order  of  things  in  North  Carolina. 

Each  committee  was  set  to  the  task  of  puzzling  out  and  stating 
What  is,  What  ought  to  be,  and  What  possibly  may  be  in  North 
Carolina.  It  was  generally  agreed  that  no  reconstruction  proposal, 
policy,  or  plan  would  avail  unless  it  appeals  to  the  common  sense  of 
the  common  man  of  the  commonwealth. 

The  Club  Program 

The  work  of  the  North  Carolina  Club  as  a  whole  was  spent  upon 
hammering  out  a  State  Reconstruction  Program  that  evidenced  a 
decent  respect  for  the  opinions  of  mankind.  This  document  was 
finally  fashioned  for  club  approval  by  the  collaboration  committee, 
after  the  reports  and  findings  of  the  various  club  committees  were  ren- 
dered according  to  the  adopted  schedule.  It  was  the  subject  of  the 
final  club  session  June  4,  1920. 

Its  1919-20  year  book  bears  the  title  of  a  Program  of  State  Recon- 
struction by  the  North  Carolina  Club.  It  doubtless  evidences  the  im- 
perfections of  youth,  but  it  at  least  expresses  the  judgments  of  a 
thoughtful  group  of  young  students  about  what  is  and  what  safely  can 
be  in  North  Carolina. 

The  Club  Organization 

This  North  Carolina   Club  is   organized  for  work  in   1919-20   with 
officers  as  follows: 
President,  J.  V.  Baggett;  Secretary,  Miss  Ernestine  Noa. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  IT.  OF  N.  C.  15 

Steering  Committee:  E.  C.  Branson,  Chairman;  D.  D.  Carroll,  C.  L. 
Raper,  S.  H.  Hobbs,  Jr.,  A.  M.  Coates,  and  W.  E.  Price. 

Publicity  Committee:  Lenoir  Chambers,  Chairman;  C.  A.  Hibbard, 
W.  H.  Andrews,  Jr.,  and  G.  D.  Crawford. 

Membership  Committee:  G.  D.  Crawford,  Chairman;  S.  H.  Hobbs, 
Jr.,  W.  H.  Andrews,  Jr.,  J.  V.  Baggett,  F.  P.  Graham,  and  Mrs.  M.  H. 
Stacy. 

Student  life  on  an  American  college  campus  is  so  intense,  the  work- 
ing schedule  so  crowded,  the  interest  in  marks  so  overwhelming,  and 
the  leisure  time  of  students  so  preoccupied  with  athletics  and  social 
events  that  college  men  do  not  easily  or  often  climb  up  and  peep  over 
the  rim  of  the  campus  bowl  into  the  affairs  of  the  big  wide  world 
where  in  a  year  or  two  they  will  rise  or  fall  according  to  their  com- 
petent acquaintance  with  life  in  the  large,  and  their  power  of  mastery 
over  themselves  and  the  situations  that  confront  them. 

Nevertheless,  at  the  University  of  North  Carolina  a  little  group  of 
some  fifty  students  and  faculty  members  has  for  five  years  met  on 
fortnightly  Monday  nights  to  study  intensively  the  economic,  social, 
and  civic  problems  of  the  home  state.  Their  club  year-books  bear 
the  following  titles:  (1)  The  Resources,  Advantages  and  Opportuni- 
ties of  North  Carolina,  (2)  Wealth  and  Welfare  in  North  Carolina, 
(3)  County  Government  and  County  Affairs  in  North  Carolina,  and  (4) 
State  Reconstruction  Studies.  It  is  a  unique  body  of  state  literature. 
There  is  nothing  else  like  it  in  any  state  of  the  Union. 

The  chapters  that  follow  give  to  the  public  the  reports  of  the  various 
club  committees,  along  with  the  bibliographies  of  selected  books,  bulle- 
tins, reports,  clippings,  and  the  like  used  during  the  year. 


16  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

CHAPTER  III 

PUBLIC  EDUCATION  IN  CAROLINA 

Equality  of  opportunity  is  the  ideal  of  democracy  in  education.  To 
help  North  Carolina  to  attain  this  ideal  is  the  purpose  of  this  report. 
The  Education  Committee  of  the  Club  has  sought  to  find  the  steps 
toward  improvement  that  may  reasonably  be  taken  within  the  next 
ten  or  twenty  years. 

Scope  of  the  Report 

This  report  deals  with  the  educational  welfare  of  two  and  a  half 
millions  of  people,  seventy-one  per  cent  of  whom  dwell  in  the  open 
country.  That  fact  marks  the  problem  as  dominantly  rural,  and  so 
throughout  the  study  that  follows  the  rural  phases  of  education  are 
emphasized.  City  educational  problems,  however,  are  given  due  weight 
and  consideration. 

The  outstanding  needs  of  the  North  Carolina  school  system  are  in 
the  order  of  their  importance: 

1.  Adequate  funds. 

2.  Better  trained  teachers  and  better  trained  county  superintendents. 

3.  A  reorganization  of  the  state,  county,  and  city  educational  units. 


Committee  Findings 

In  the  judgment  of  your  Committee,  the  steps  to  be  taken  in  order 
to  meet  the  educational  needs  of  the  state  are: 

1.  Pnblic  School  Support 

(1)  The  provision  of  funds,  one-third  by  state  tax  and  appropriation, 
and  the   remaining   two-thirds   by   county   tax,   adequate   for   all   the 
school  expenses  of  the  state,  providing  an  amount  sufficient  to  main- 
tain all  the  elementary  and  high  schools  at  least  eight  months. 

(2)  The  adoption  of  the  county  as  the  unit  of  local  taxation. 

2.  Organization  and  Administration. 

(1)  The  appointment  of  the  State  Board  of  Education  by  the  Gov- 
ernor subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Senate. 

(2)  The  election  of  the  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction 
by  the  State  Board  of  Education  for  a  term  of  five  years,  the  selec- 
tion being  determined  by  professional  standing  and   ability  without 
reference  to  place  of  residence. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  17 

(3)  The  establishment  of  the  county  as  the  unit  for  local  organiza- 
tion and  administration,  abolishing  all  present  district,  city,  and  county 
boards  of  education,  and  in  their  stead  placing  the  school  affairs  of 
the  entire  county  (city,  village,  and  rural)  in  the  control  of  a  County 
Board  of  Education.    This  board  should  consist  of  five  members  to  be 
elected  by  the  qualified  voters  of  the  county  on  a  non-partisan  ticket 
at  a  special  election.    The  term  of  office  of  the  members  should  be  five 
years,   so   arranged  that  one  member  should  retire  each  year.     The 
function  of  the  board  should  be  legislative  only,  and  should  be  con- 
cerned with  the  broad  aspects  of  policy,  rather  than  with  executive  or 
administrative  duties. 

(4)  The  election  of  the  County  Superintendent  of  Education  for  a 
term   of   five  years,   the  selection   being   determined   by   professional 
standing  and  ability  without  reference  to  politics,  creed,  or  place  of 
residence.    The  relation  of  the  Superintendent  to  the  County  Board  of 
Education  should  be  such  as  to  make  him  its  supreme  executive  and 
administrative    officer,   with   full   power   over   all   professional    educa- 
tional matters,  such  as  the  appointment  of  teachers,  principals,  super- 
visors, and  assistants,  consolidation  of  schools,  and  the  organization  of 
courses  of  study,  and  the  general  direction  of  the  school  work  of  the 
county. 

(5)  The  appointment  of  three  directors  for  each  school  community 
in  the  county  by  the  County  Board  of  Education,  said  directors  to  be 
custodians   of  the   local   school   property   and   to   represent  the   local 
needs  before  the  County  Hoard  of  Education. 

(6)  The   organization   of  elementary   and   high   schools   on  a   6-3-3 
basis. 

(7)  The  furnishing  of  free  textbooks  in  all  public  elementary  and 
high  schools. 

(8)  The  specifying  of  8  to  16  years  as  the  ages  for  compulsory  school 
attendance. 

(9)  Adequate    provision    for   physical    education    coordinated    with 
medical  and  sanitary  supervision. 

(10)  The  approval  of  all  building  plans  and  specifications  by  the 
State  Superintendent  of  Education  and  the  State  Board  of  Health. 

(11)  The  subsidizing  of  the  building  of  teacherages  by  the  payment 
of  one-third  of  the  expense  by  the  State. 

(12)  The  mandatory  appointment  of  at  least  one  teacher  in  each 
county  to  give  full  time  to  the  campaign  against  illiteracy  and  near- 
illiteracy. 

(13)  The  encouragement  of  vocational  education  through  state  aid 
and  the  requiring  of  at  least  one  high  school  in  each  county  to  offer 
properly  equipped  and  properly  taught  courses  in  agriculture,  domestic 
science,  and  teacher  training  in  addition  to  the  usual  academic  subjects. 


18          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

(14)  Adequate  provision  for  the  education  of  the  negroes,  particu- 
larly in  industrial  subjects. 

(15)  The  minimum  requirement  for  all  new  teachers  for  permission 
to  teach  in  any  public  school  to  be  the  successful  completion  of  four 
years  of  high  school  training  and  at  least  one  additional  year  of  pro- 
fessional study. 

(16)  The  granting  of  certificates  by  the  State  Board  of  Education 
for  all  positions  paying  $60  a  month  or  more,  beginning  salaries  being 
scaled   according   to   the   grade   of   certificate    held;    salary   increases 
being  scaled  according  to  success  in  teaching,  length  of  tenure  at  one 
place,  and  professional  improvement   through  study  at  approved  in- 
stitutions. 

(17)  The  minimum  salary  for  any  teacher  who  is  a  graduate  of  a 
standard  college  and  who  has  had  one  year's  successful  teaching  ex- 
perience to  be  $100  per  month. 

(18)  The  establishment  of  a  state  system  of  pensions  for  teachers. 

(19)  The  employment  of  all  teachers  for  a  term  of  twelve  months. 

(20)  Adequate  provision  to  aid  the  intelligent  consolidation  of  schools 
and  the  transportation  of  pupils  at  public  expense. 

3.  Higher  Education. 

(1)  The  increase  of  facilities  for  the  professional  training  of  teachers 
in  vocational  subjects  at  the  State  College  of  Agriculture  and  Engineer- 
ing. 

(2)  The  increase  of  facilities  for  training  teachers  in  county  high 
schools,  normal  schools,  and  colleges  until  2,000   new  teachers  each 
year  can  be  provided  for. 

(3)  The  establishment  of  practice  schools  illustrating  both  city  and 
rural  conditions  in  connection  with  all  teacher  training  departments 
in  institutions  of  higher  learning. 

(4)  The  acceptance  for  entrance  at  all  institutions  of  higher  learn- 
ing of  any  fifteen  units  of  work,  involving  four  sequences  of  three 
units  each,  successfully  completed  at  an  accredited  high  school. 

(5)  Increased  appropriations    based  on  a    state-wide  mill   tax  of 
such  size  as  to  meet  the  progressively  increasing  needs  of  the  state's 
higher  institutions  of  learning. 

(6)  The  establishment  of  at  least  two   standard  teacher  training 
schools  in  the  state. 

n 

Explanations  in  Brief 

The  three  principal  recommendations  in  the  above  list  of  findings 
concern  (1)  school  funds,  (2)  adequately  trained  teachers  and  school 
officials,  and  (3)  the  county  unit  of  organization  and  administration. 
The  following  explanations  will  be  restricted  to  these  outstanding  needs. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  19 

FUNDS 

North  Carolina  is  a  billionaire  state.  The  census  estimate  of  the 
volume  of  primary  wealth  produced  in  1919  is  conservatively  esti- 
mated at  $1,397,000,000.  In  the  face  of  such  big-scale  production  is 
North  Carolina  to  go  on  with  her  small-scale  thinking  about  public  edu- 
cation? That  it  is  small-scale  thinking  is  attested  by  the  fact  that  in 
practically  all  important  aspects  of  educational  work  our  state  ranks 
in  the  lowest  group  of  all  the  states  of  the  United  States,  and  some- 
times we  are  nearly  last  within  that  group.  This  is  true  in  regard  to: 
(1)  Length  of  school  term;  (2)  average  salary  of  teachers;  (3)  school 
property  investment  for  each  child;  (4)  per  cent  of  total  enrollment  in 
high  schools. 

If  this  is  to  change,  if  we  are  to  regain  in  the  South  the  place  of 
leadership  that  we  held  in  the  days  of  Calvin  H.  Wiley,  we  must  invest 
heavily  in  public  education.  Our  school  money  must  not  only  be 
doubled  but  tripled  if  ample  funds  are  to  be  provided  for  "all  that  is 
necessary  in  buildings,  equipments  and  grounds,  in  length  of  school 
term,  and  in  teachers  adequately  prepared  for  their  work." 

BETTER  TRAINED  TEACHERS 

Of  the  11,730  white  teachers  in  North  Carolina  9,207  have  never 
graduated  either  from  a  teacher  training  school  or  a  college.  We  are 
playing  with  education,  bluffing  ourselves  into  thinking  our  children 
are  being  properly  taught.  The  comparatively  uneducated  are  being 
set  to  teach  the  slightly  less  educated  and  ignorant.  Public  school 
teaching  in  our  state  is  not  a  profession  as  long  as  there  are  so  many 
untrained  teachers  at  work.  If  we  want  professionally  trained  teachers 
we  can  get  them,  but  we  must  pay  for  them.  There  are  thousands  of 
untrained  teachers  who  will  gladly  take  professional  training,  if  the 
salaries  are  increased  so  as  to  justify  their  doing  so. 

However,  in  order  to  give  professional  training  to  our  teachers 
we  need  increased  facilities  for  teacher  training.  Provision  should  be 
made  for  more  teacher  training  schools  and  for  increased  facilities  in 
the  schools  of  this  sort  already  in  existence.  At  present  the  graduates 
from  all  the  normal  schools  and  colleges  of  the  state  number  less  than 
800  per  year.  We  need  2,600  new  teachers  every  year.  Until  such 
time  as  normal  school  facilities  for  the  graduating  of  2,600  new  teachers 
per  year  are  provided,  teacher  training  should  be  given  in  at  least 
one  high  school  in  each  county,  by  a  teacher  placed  there  by  the  state. 

PROFESSIONALLY  TRAINED  COUNTY  SUPERINTENDENTS 

A  County  Superintendent  of  Education  should  in  fact  as  well  as  in 
title  be  the  professional  head  of  the  educational  forces  of  the  county. 


20  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

His  training  should  be  equal  to  if  not  better  than  that  of  the  highest 
teachers  under  him.  If  we  are  ever  to  get  professionally  trained  teach- 
ers in  a  county,  the  very  first  step  is  to  get  a  professionally  trained 
county  superintendent.  There  are  a  hundred  County  Superintendents 
of  Education  in  North  Carolina  today.  Less  than  twenty  of  them  are 
professionally  trained  educators,  fully  alive  to  the  tremendous  im- 
portance of  their  office.  The  County  Superintendent  of  Education  is  the 
key  to  the  improvement  of  North  Carolina  education.  If  nothing  else 
be  done,  let  this  be  done.  Put  professionally  trained  men  in  each  county 
superintendency.  Let  the  people  of  the  county  elect  the  County  Board 
of  Education,  and  then  let  the  County  Board  look  anywhere  in  the 
state  or  in  the  United  States  for  a  man  adequately  fitted  for  the  duties 
of  the  office.  Until  professionally  trained  County  Superintendents  of 
Education  are  secured,  public  education  in  North  Carolina  will  mark 
time. 

THE  COUNTY  UNIT 

To  equalize  educational  opportunities  and  to  coordinate  the  work  of 
educating  the  children  is  the  purpose  of  a  county  unit.  In  organization^ 
administration,  and  support,  all  the  schools  of  the  county — city  and 
rural — are  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  County  Board  of  Education,  the 
County  Superintendent  of  Education,  and  his  professional  assistants. 
This  is  done  to  bring  the  county  as  a  whole  to  a  high  level  of  educa- 
tional progress.  Under  the  present  district  system  many  parts  of  the 
county  are  barely  existing  educationally.  The  children  pay;  it  is 
they  who  suffer.  Practically  every  county  in  this  state  has  fifty  or 
more  one-room,  one-teacher  schools.  Under  a  county  unit  system 
these  schools  would  be  merged  into  a  small  number  of  consolidated 
schools  to  which  the  children  would  be  transported  by  wagon  or  truck. 
In  such  consolidated  schools  country  children  would  receive  educa- 
tional opportunities  fully  equal  to  those  of  city  children.  These 
schools  need  to  be  taught  by  country-minded  teachers  whose  profes- 
sional training  is  in  all  respects  equal  to  that  of  the  best  city  teachers. 
Schools  of  this  sort  could  be  community  centers  working  for  the 
enrichment  and  the  advancement  of  country  life.  Cities  in  large  meas- 
ure owe  their  prosperity  and  growth  to  the  surrounding  area  of  coun- 
try production  and  trade.  They  owe  it  to  the  countryside  to  help  make 
the  country  schools  as  vigorous  and  eflBcient  as  the  city  schools. 

Equality  of  educational  opportunity  can  not  be  effected  by  the 
county  unit,  unless  the  county  as  a  whole — city  and  rural-^is  made 
the  unit  for  school  taxation.  No  special  taxes  in  special  districts,  but 
the  same  tax  throughout  the  county,  both  in  the  city  and  in  the  coun- 
try. The  whole  wealth  of  the  state  is  available  to  educate  the  children 
of  the  state.  The  whole  wealth  of  the  county  should  be  available  to 
educate  the  children  of  the  county.  Only  thus  can  educational  oppor- 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  1ST.  C.  21 

tunity  be  equalized,  particularly  for  the  seventy-five  per  cent  of  North 
Carolina  children  who  dwell  in  the  open  country. 

The  county-wide  school  unit  is  not  an  experiment.  It  has  been  tried 
and  tested  here  in  North  Carolina.  New  Hanover  County  has  had  it 
for  years.  The  country  people  of  New  Hanover  and  the  people  of 
Wilmington  all  unite  in  praise  of  the  system.  In  Alabama  the  State 
Superintendent  of  Education  resigned  his  office  to  become  the  County 
Superintendent  of  Education  in  Jefferson  County  under  a  county-unit 
system.  The  opportunity  which  the  county-unit  offers  appeals  to  the 
very  highest  type  of  educational  workers.  In  Shelby  County,  Tennessee, 
the  county  unit  has  proved  a  brilliant  success.  The  people  of  Memphis 
are  justly  proud  of  the  country  schools  of  the  county,  and  they  rival 
in  excellence  those  of  the  city  itself.  In  Baltimore  County,  Maryland, 
the  plan  has  been  in  operation  for  a  number  of  years  and  is  a  decided 
success.  In  Florida  the  system  has  been  in  operation  for  many  years 
under  a  state-wide  plan.  In  view  of  these  facts  legislation  should  be 
enacted  allowing  and  encouraging  the  county  unit  in  North  Carolina. 
— Harry  P.  Latshaw,  Chairman;  R.  B.  Spencer,  H.  B.  Simpson,  B.  W. 
Sipe,  W.  J.  Nichols,  O.  A.  Tuttle,  and  Mrs.  H.  F.  Latshaw,  Committee 
on  Education. 

November   10,   1919. 


OUTLINE  OF  PUBLIC  EDUCATION  STUDIES 

1.  Public    school    support    and    policies,    covering    (a)    elementary 
schools,   (b)   high  schools,    (c)   technical  schools,  and    (d)    schools  of 
liberal  arts. 

2.  Illiteracy  and  near-illiteracy,  (a)  the  facts  and  their  significance, 
(b)  policies  and  methods  of  attack. 

3.  Vocational  education,  for  farm,  factory,  and  urban  populations: 
(a)   Survey  of  our  needs,   (b)   vocational  educational  agencies,  activi- 
ties, and  results  in  North  Carolina,  (c)  the  special  importance  of  farm 
vocational  education  and  the  necessity  for  country  teacherages,    (d) 
conclusions. 

4.  Teacher  training:     (a)   The  necessity  for  increased  agencies  and 
facilities,  (b)  policies  and  plans. 

Bibliographies 

Sources  of  information,  numbered  and  lettered  to  correspond  with 
the  study  outlines  of  the  club — a  plan  that  will  be  followed  through- 
out the  bibliography  sections  for  special  committee  studies. 

1.  Public  Education  Support,  Policies,  etc. 

(a)  Public  School  Expenditures  per  pupil  in  the  U.  S. — University 
News  Letter,  Vol.  V,  No.  25. 


22  STATE  KECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Public  Education  Costs — S.  H.  Hobbs,  Jr.,  University  News  Letter, 
January  28,  1920. 

Six  Millions  for  Schools  in  North  Carolina — Dr.  E.  C.  Brooks.  File 
No.  371.21,  University  Rural  Social  Science  Library. 

Apportionment  of  School  Funds  in  the  United  States,  Digest  of  Laws 
— Wisconsin  Legislative  Reference  Library. 

Manual  of  Educational  Legislation — Federal  Education  Bureau  Bul- 
letin No.  4,  1919. 

Report  of  the  Virginia  Educational  Commission — File  No.  370.2, 
University  Rural  Social  Science  Library. 

President  Eliot's  Educational  Program  —  University  Rural  Social 
Science  Files,  No.  370. 

Educational  Study  of  Alabama — Federal  Educational  Bureau  Bulletin 
No.  41,  1919. 

A  Study  of  the  Rural  Schools  of  Texas — University  Extension  Series, 
Bulletin  No.  62,  October,  1914. 

Beginning  and  Developing  a  Rural  School — University  of  Texas, 
Bulletin  No.  1729,  May,  1917. 

The  Reconstructed  School — Francis  B.  Pearson.  McClurg  Publishing 
Company,  Chicago. 

Outline  of  Social  Studies  for  Elementary  Schools — John  M.  Gillette. 
Reprint  from  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  January,  1914. 

Lessons  in  Community  and  National  Life,  Series  C  for  Upper  Ele- 
mentary Classes — Judd  and  Marshall.  Federal  Bureau  of  Education, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

(b)  Secondary  Schools. 

Principles  of  Secondary  Education — Alexander  Inglis.  Houghton 
Mifflin  Company,  Boston.  741  pp. 

Needed  Changes  in  Secondary  Education — Eliot  and  Nelson.  Federal 
Education  Bureau  Bulletin  No.  10,  1916. 

Cardinal  Principles  of  Secondary  Education,  Preliminary  Report  of 
the  Committee  of  the  National  Educational  Association — Federal  Edu- 
cation Bureau  Bulletin  No.  35,  1918. 

Sociology  Teaching  in  High  Schools — Theron  Freeee.  Sociological 
Society,  University  of  Southern  California,  Los  Angeles. 

High  School  Sociology  Teaching,  Discussion  Outlines — Ross  L.  Fin- 
ney,  University  of  Minnesota,  Minneapolis. 

Social  Studies  in  Secondary  Education — Arthur  W.  Dunn.  Federal 
Education  Bureau  Bulletin  No.  28,  1916,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Lessons  in  Community  and  National  Life,  Series  B  and  A  for  High 
School  Grades — Judd  and  Marshall.  Federal  Education  Bureau  Bul- 
letin, Washington,  D.  C. 

Values  of  Home  Making  Courses  in  High  Schools— Virginia  High 
School  Bulletin,  December,  1919. 

(c)  Technical  Schools — Agricultural. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  INT.  C.  23 

American  Agricultural  Colleges — Chester  D.  Jarvis.  Federal  Educa* 
tion  Bureau  Bulletin  No.  29,  1918,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Agricultural  Education,  1916-18— C.  H.  Lane.  Federal  Education 
Bureau  Bulletin,  1918,  No.  4. 

Gillette's  Constructive  Rural  Sociology — Sturgis  and  Walton  Com- 
pany, New  York.  256-60  pp. 

Agricultural  Education — Fourth  Annual  Report  of  the  Carnegie 
Foundation.  97-107  pp. 

Sources  of  Pictures  in  Teaching  Agriculture  and  Nature  Study — 
University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  374.7. 

How  Teachers  May  Use  Farmers'  Bulletins  in  Elementary  Schools — 
Bulletin  of  Office  of  Agricultural  Instruction,  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, Washington,  D.  C. 

Agriculture  in  Ohio  Elementary  Schools — State  Department  of  Public 
Instruction,  Springfield,  O. 

(d)   Schools  of  Liberal  Arts. 

State  University  Plants  and  Support — University  News  Letter,  Vol. 
V,  Nos.  9,  10,  11,  and  12. 

State  Universities  and  State  Colleges,  statistics  for  1917-1918— Federal 
Educational  Bureau  Bulletin,  1918,  No.  51. 

Colleges  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  Resources  and  Standards — Samuel 
Paul  Capen.  Federal  Education  Bureau  Bulletin  No.  30,  1918. 

Columbia  Adopts  New  Entrance  Tests — Press  Item.  University  Rural 
Social  Science  Files,  No.  378. 

Colleges  in  War  Time  and  After — Paul  Rexford  Kolbe.  D.  Appleton 
and  Company,  New  York.  313  pp. 

A  Social  Science  School,  Public  Welfare  courses  in  the  University  of 
North  Carolina— University  News  Letter,  Vol.  V,  Nos.  6,  28,  44,  and  47. 

The  North  Carolina  Program  of  Education,  Greensboro  Conference. 
Community  Progress,  May  15,  1920. 

The  Greatest  Educational  Needs  of  N.  C.,  by  State  Superintendent 
E.  C.  Hrooke.  Asheville  Citizen,  May  9,  1920. 

Survey  of  Public  Education  in  N.  C.,  by  The  General  Education  Board 
in  1920.  N.  C.  State  Department  of  Education,  Raleigh. 

2.  Illiteracy  and  Near-Illiteracy. 

(a)  The  facts  and  their  significance. 

University  News  Letter— Vol.  I,  No.  41,  Vol.  II,  No.  24,  Vol.  V,  Nos. 
14,  15,  20,  and  25. 

Draft  Illiteracy  in  North  Carolina — University  Rural  Social  Science 
Files,  No.  375.93. 

Adult  Illiteracy— Winthrop  Talbot.  Federal  Bureau  Bulletin,  1916, 
No.  35. 

Adult  Illiteracy  in  North  Carolina  and  Plans  for  Elimination  (1915) 
— State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction. 


24          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Illiteracy,  Distribution  in  Georgia— Roland  M.  Harper.  Georgia  High 
School  Quarterly,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  254-262. 

Increasing  Illiteracy  Among  Adult  Whites  in  South  Carolina,  a 
Laboratory  Study— Harold  D.  Burgess.  University  Rural  Social  Sci- 
ence Files,  No.  375.93. 

Illiteracy  in  Alabama,  Where  and  Why — Roland  M.  Harper.  Mont- 
gomery Advertiser,  June  1,  1919. 

Kenyon  Americanization  Bill,  S.  3315 — University  Rural  Social  Sci- 
ence Files,  No.  312.1. 

Community  Schools,  a  Plan  of  Attack  Upon  Illiteracy  in  North 
Carolina — Mies  Elizabeth  Kelly,  State  Education  Department,  Raleigh, 
N.  C. 

The  N.  C.  Law  on  Compulsory  Attendance  and  Child  Labor — Public 
Laws  of  North  Carolina,  1919. 

Rules  and  Regulations  Governing  School  Attendance  in  North  Caro- 
lina— State  Board  of  Education. 

Every  Child  in  School— Bulletin  No.  64,  1919.  Federal  Bureau  of 
Education,  Washington,  D.  C. 

3.  Vocational  Education. 

Vocational  Education— Wm.  T.  Bawden.  Federal  Education  Bureau 
Bulletin,  1919,  No.  25. 

Vocational  Guidance  and  the  Public  Schools — Wm.  Carson  Ryan,  Jr. 
Federal  Education  Bureau  Bulletin,  1918,  No.  24. 

Training  Teachers  of  Vocational  Agriculture — Bulletin  No.  27,  Agri- 
culture Series  No.  5. — Federal  Vocational  Educational  Board,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 

Enrollment  of  Vocational  Students  by  States,  Appropriations,  1917-18, 
etc. — The  Vocational  Summary,  Washington,  D.  C.,  May,  1919,  12-14  pp. 

Vocational  Personnel  in  North  Carolina,  on  September  21,  1919 — 
University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  374.67.  Also  the  Agricul- 
tural Education  Monthly,  Raleigh,  October,  1919.  File  No.  374.67. 

Vocational  Education  in  North  Carolina,  Bulletin  No.  1,  December 
12,  1917-^State  Vocational  Education  Board,  Raleigh. 

High  Spots  in  Vocational  Education  in  N.  C. — Agricultural  Educa- 
tion Monthly,  Sept.  15,  1920,  West  Raleigh. 

Courses  in  Vocational  Home  Economics — Edna  F.  Coith,  State  Super- 
visor of  Home  Economics,  West  Raleigh,  N.  C. 

Teaching  Vocational  Agriculture  in  Secondary  Schools — T.  E.  Browne. 
State  College  Record,  Vol.  17,  No.  6. 

Federal  Aid  for  Vocational  Education  in  North  Carolina,  Bulletin 
No.  II,  December  1,  1918 — State  Vocational  Educational  Board,  Raleigh. 

Teaching  Agriculture,  Home  Economics,  and  Manual  Training  in  the 
Sixth  Grade,  Agricultural  Bulletin  No.  1 — State  Board  of  Education, 
Raleigh. 

Vocational  Bulletins  of  the  Texas  State  Board;  Austin:    (a)  Federal 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  "N.  C.  25 

Aid  to  Vocational  Education,  (b)  A  Year's  Work  in  General  Agricul- 
ture, (c)  A  Year's  Work  in  Vocational  Agriculture — Animal  Produc- 
tion, (d)  First  Annual  Report. 

Vocational  Education,  by  John  M.  Gillette,  303  pp. — American  Book 
Co.,  New  York. 

Country  School  Teacherages. 

Teachers'  Cottages,  with  reading  references — R.  S.  Kellogg.  Na- 
tional Lumber  Manufacturers'  Association,  Chicago,  111.  57  pp. 

Newspaper  Clippings— File  No.  371.61,  University  Rural  Social  Sci- 
ence Department. 

Carolina  Teacherages — The  University  News  Letter,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  23. 

4.  Teacher  Training. 

Rural-Teacher  Preparation  in  County  Training  Schools  and  High 
Schools — H.  J.  Foght,  Bulletin,  1917,  No.  31.  Federal  Education  Bu- 
reau, Washington,  D.  C. 

More  Normal  Schools  in  North  Carolina — R.  H.  Wright,  University 
Rural  Social  Science  File  No.  371.6. 

Plan  for  Training  Newly  Enlisted  Public  School  Teachers  in  North 
Carolina — Dr.  E.  C.  Brooks,  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion, Raleigh. 

Efficiency  and  Preparation  of  Rural  School  Teachers— H.  W.  Foght, 
Bulletin  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  1914,  No.  49.  School  of  Education 
File  371.12. 

The  Wisconsin  County  Training  Schools  for  Teachers  in  Rural 
Schools — W.  E.  Larson.  Bulletin  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  1916, 
No.  17.  School  of  Education  File  371.12. 

The  Ohio  Plan  of  Teacher  Training,  Higher  Education  Circular  No. 
18. — Federal  Bureau  of  Education. 

City  Training  Schools  for  Teachers— F.  A.  Mauny.  Bulletin  U.  S. 
Bureau  of  Education,  1914,  No.  47.  School  of  Education  File  371.12. 

Preparation  of  Rural  School  Teachers  by  State  Normal  Schools — 
T.  A.  Hillyer.  Bulletin  Minnesota  State  Normal  School's  Quarterly 
Journal,  September,  1916.  School  of  Education  File  371.12. 

Education  Committee 

The  County  Unit  System  of  Public  Schools:  H.  F.  Latshaw,  Chair- 
man, Macon  County,  Franklin. 

Units  of  Organization:    R.  B.  Spencer,  Orange  County,  Chapel  Hill. 

School  Administration:    H.  B.  Simpson,  Union  County,  Matthews. 

Form  of  Organization:    W.  J.  Nichols,  Durham  County,  Gorman. 

Illiteracy  and  School  Support:  O.  A.  Tuttle,  Mecklenburg  County, 
Pineville. 

Building  Program:    B.  W.  Sipe,  Gaston  County,  Cherryville. 

Teachers  and  Teacher  Training:    Mrs.  H.  F.  Latshaw. 

Committee  report   (tentative),  November  10,  1919. 


26  STATE  KECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 


CHAPTER  IV 

COUNTY  HEALTH  DEPARTMENTS,  WHOLE-TIME  HEALTH 
OFFICERS  AND  PUBLIC  HEALTH  NURSES 

BLACKWELL  MARKHAM,  DURHAM,  N.  C. 

I.  Scope  of  the  Report 

The  findings  of  this  division  of  Public  Health  Committee  concern 
the  establishment  of  effective  county  health  machinery  in  each  county 
of  the  state;  to  consist  of  a  well  ordered  county  health  department, 
headed  by  a  whole-time  health  officer  who  in  turn  should  be  aided  by 
a  whole-time  public  health  nurse. 

North  Carolina,  while  it  is  the  most  aggressive  of  the  Southern 
States  in  public  health  work,  has  still  to  reach  in  effective  ways  eigh- 
teen hundred  thousand  dwellers  in  the  open  country.  They  are  71  per 
cent  of  our  total  population,  and  they  are  difficult  to  reach  and  serve. 
So  in  every  state. 

But  the  greatest  barrier  to  effective  public  health  work  lies  in  the 
indifference,  inertia  and  unconcern  of  the  people  in  general  in  rural 
and  urban  districts  alike  in  regard  to  disease-prevention  and  health- 
promotion. 

At  the  present  time  only  21  of  our  100  counties  are  provided  with 
public  health  departments.  Only  14  of  these  departments  are  under 
the  direction  of  the  State  Board  of  Health,  while  only  7  of  these  boards 
have  the  assistance  of  whole-time  public  health  nurses.  This  figure 
does  not  include  the  60-odd  nurses  employed  by  life  insurance  com- 
panies, civic  organizations,  churches  and  mill  owners  in  North  Carolina. 

II.  Program  Proposals 

(1)  A  statute  law  compelling  the  establishment  of  a  county  health 
department  in  each   county   with   a   population    of   25,000    and    over. 
These  departments  should  operate  under  the  direction  of  the   State 
Board  of  Health.     They  should  carry  on  or  improve  the  plans  which 
are  at  present  in  operation  in  the  most  progressive  county  health  de- 
partments now  existent. 

(2)  Each  county  health  department  (a)  should  be  under  the  super- 
vision of  a  competent  county  health  board,   (b)   should  be  under  the 
direction  of  a  competent  whole-time  health  officer,  (c)  should  have  the 
assistance  of  one  or  more  well  trained  whole-time  public  health  nurses, 
the  number  varying  according  to  the  actual  need;    (d)    should  work 
from  a  county  or  county-group  hospital,   (e)  should  conduct  diagnosis 
centers,  general  clinics,  and  dispensaries. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  27 

III.    Explanations 

State  legislation  if  properly  enforced  would  lay  the  foundations  for 
sound  health  conditions  all  over  the  state.  Well  ordered  county  health 
departments  should  be  established  in  every  county.  The  upkeep  of 
each  department  should  be  cared  for  partly  by  the  county  and  partly 
by  the  state.  Effective  health  work  in  the  smaller  counties  would  be 
too  expensive  for  them  to  conduct  alone.  Every  dollar  of  taxable 
wealth  in  the  state  should  be  put  behind  the  health-promotion  and 
disease-prevention  in  rich  and  poor  county  districts  alike. 

The  supervision  of  a  competent  county  health  board  is  essential  in 
order  to  assure  the  right  use  of  the  methods  suggested  by  State  Board 
of  Health  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  hand  to  judge  accurately 
the  needs  of  the  people  of  the  particular  county.  Also  to  judge  the 
competency  of  the  health  officer  and  nurse. 

The  county  health  officer  should  devote  his  whole  time  to  county 
work  and  should  have  every  facility  for  carrying  on  his  work  efficiently. 
He  should  be  well  fitted  for  his  position.  No  unsuccessful  physician 
who  formerly  has  not  had  enough  to  keep  him  busy  should  occupy  this 
important  public  office. 

(3)  The  whole-time  health  nurse  has  an  unusual  field  of  opportunity 
open  to  her.  She  should  have  a  good  general  education  and  not  only 
be  well  versed  in  the  arts  of  bedside  nursing,  but  should  also  possess 
the  fine  arts  of  transferring  her  knowledge  of  sanitation  and  hygiene 
to  the  people  she  comes  in  contact  with  daily. 

Diagnosis  centers  and  general  clinics  should  be  determined  by  the 
necessities  of  different  communities,  since  varying  conditions  produce 
varying  needs. — Blackwell  Markham,  Chairman  Sub-Committee  on 
Public  Health. 


RURAL  PUBLIC  HEALTH  WORK 

Perhaps  the  most  thorough  study  of  civic  machinery  for  public 
health  work  in  country  areas  is  that  of  E.  C.  Branson,  Kenan  Profes- 
sor of  Rural  Social  Science  at  the  University  of  North  Carolina.  We 
are,  therefore,  printing  in  full  his  report  on  this  subject  to  the  American 
Country  Life  Association  at  its  recent  session  in  Chicago: 

Scope  of  the  Report 

The  findings  of  your  committee  concern  the  governmental  machinery 
of  public  health  work  among  44,000,000  dwellers  in  the  open  country  of 
the  United  States  outside  incorporated  towns  of  every  sort  and  size, 
and  10,000,000  village  dwellers  in  towns  of  fewer  than  2,500  inhabitants. 
Here,  all  told,  are  54,000,000  people,  or  just  about  half  our  total 


28  STATE  KECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

population  at  present.  These  people  are  aside  and  apart  from  the 
centers  of  business  activity  and  social  enterprise.  Remote  and  aloof, 
they  were  hard  to  reach  down  to  the  last  household  in  our  liberty  bond, 
war  stamp,  and  war  benevolence  drives.  They  are  just  as  hard  to  reach 
with  public  health  literature  and  to  arouse  to  self-protective  activity 
in  behalf  of  disease-prevention  and  health-promotion. 

The  instinct  of  self-preservation  is  feeble  in  individuals,  except  on 
the  lower  levels  of  life  and  in  dramatic  situations  of  sudden  peril  to 
life  and  limb;  it  is  even  feebler  in  the  collective  personalities  called 
cities,  as  most  of  us  have  learned  in  the  struggle  to  persuade  boards  of 
aldermen  to  invest  in  adequate  public  health  machinery;  it  is  almost 
non-existent,  as  a  local  civic  asset,  among  the  multitudes  scattered 
throughout  the  vast  open  spaces  of  America. 

Your  committee  has  been  charged  with  considering  the  hard  end  of 
public  health  work,  namely,  the  public  health  machinery  that  will 
effectively  reach  and  serve  the  rural  multitudes  who  can  not  or  will 
not  take  individual  or  collective  action  in  behalf  of  themselves,  their 
homes,  or  their  home  communities.  Rural  public  health,  like  the  rural 
public  school,  is  a  mired  wheel  at  present  in  the  United  States. 

Committee  Findings 

Effective  public  health  work  in  rural  areas  seems  to  your  committee 
to  mean: 

1.  A  state  department  of  public  health  with  authority  to  determine 
general  public  health  policies,  to  broadcast  popular  public  health  litera- 
ture, to  establish  and  maintain  standards  of  public  health  service,  to 
supervise  and  direct  all  state  and  local  health  activities,  agencies,  and 
institutions  whatsoever,  and  to  serve  within  the  state  as  a  direct  co- 
ordinating center  for  all  extra-state  public  health  organizations   and 
agencies,    federal   health   bureaus   as   well   as   national   public   health 
philanthropies. 

2.  Regional    diagnosis    centers,    general    clinics    and    dispensaries — 
enough  to  be  within  easy  reach  of  the  rural  population  of  a  state. 

3.  Hygiene  and  sanitation  as  required  subjects  of  instruction  in  all 
grades  and  types  of  schools  receiving  state  aid. 

These  as  a  setting  and  support  for 

4.  A  county-unit  organization  of  public  health  machinery  under  state 
health  board  guidance. 

Explanations  in  Brief 

1.  The  State  Department  of  Public  Health.  It  appears  to  your  com- 
mittee to  be  both  possible  and  desirable  that  all  local  public  health 
work,  regional,  county,  and  municipal,  be  placed  under  the  authorita- 
tive guidance  of  the  state  health  board;  and  also  that  all  outside  pub- 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  "N.  C.  29 

lie  health  agencies  and  organizations  operating  within  a  state  function 
through  the  state  board — this  in  order  to  avoid,  in  Milton's  phrase, 
confusion  worse  confounded,  which  being  translated  means  confounded 
confusion.  This  finding  presupposes  the  willingness  of  public  health 
organizations,  local,  state,  and  national,  to  federate  their  aims,  to  con- 
centrate their  funds,  and  to  operate  through  a  single  responsible  state 
agency  in  comfortable  comradeship.  If  it  cannot  be  so,  it  indicates  a 
sad  lack  of  self-effacingness  among  Good  Samaritans  along  the  road 
to  Jericho.  Pending  such  a  federation,  national  organizations  should 
place  their  public  health  work  on  a  project  basis,  and  definitely  an- 
nounce their  projects  to  the  public. 

2.  Regional   Diagnosis   Centers,    General    Clinics,   and    Dispensaries. 
Such  centers  ought  to  be  established  in  steadily  increasing  number  in 
every  state,  and  their  location  determined  by  the  necessities  of  remote 
rural  regions.     The  investment  and  operating  expense  ought  to  be  a 
charge  upon  the  state  treasury,  supplemented  by  the  funds  of  such 
federal    bureaus   and    volunteer    organizations    as    find    these    centers 
useful  in  reaching  the  disabled  constituencies  they  are  created  to  serve. 
The  lack  of  such  centers  at  present  leaves  our  rural  populations  at  the 
mercy  of  clogging  inveterate  superstitions,  quack  doctors,  and  patent 
medicine  venders. 

3.  Schools  of  every  grade  and  type  receiving  state  aid  in  any  measure 
should   offer   instruction   in   hygiene  and   sanitation,   with   lessons   in 
first  aid,  bedside  nursing,  and  sick-room  dietetics,  adapted  to  classes 
of  various  ages  and  degrees  of  preparedness.    A  measureable  command 
of  these  matters  ought  to  be  required  for  a  license  to  teach  in  the 
public  schools  of  the  United  States;  otherwise  college,  normal  school, 
and  summer  school  courses  in  these  subjects  are  likely  to  be  offered 
in  vain  for  long  years  to  come.    Credit  courses  must  be  used  to  create 
civic  and  social  mindedness.     The  schools  must  hurry  to   capitalize 
popular  interest   in   public   health.     Public   health   servants   must  be 
trained  in  wholesale  numbers,  and  rural  communities  must  be  stirred 
into   readiness   for  action,   by   intelligent  local   leaders   in   multiplied 
thousands.     Public  health  instruction  in  the  schools  is  foundational. 

The  Comity-Unit  Plan 

4.  The  County  Unit  of  Public  Health  Machinery.    In  forty-one  states 
the  county  is  the  local  unit  of  civil  government.     Just  as  we  have 
slowly  come  to  see  that  public  education  on  a  county-wide  basis  is 
the  way  of  progress,  so  it  begins  to  appear  that  the  county  as  such 
is  the  proper  territorial  basis  for  local  health  organizations  operating 
as  mediate  agencies  of  state  health  board  effort,  and  that  on  no  other 
basis  are  we  likely  to  reach  and  serve  our  country  population  in  public 
health  work.     And  this  is  probably  just  as  true  in  regions  where  the 
town  or  township  is  the  real  unit  of  political  life  as  it  is  in  areas 


30          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

where  the  township  is  merely  a  geographic  term  with  little  or  no  sig- 
nificance of  economic,  social,  or  civic  sort.  Effective  public  health 
work  is  expensive — too  expensive  for  rural  taxpayers  or  for  dwellers 
in  fractional  areas  of  rural  counties.  Our  rural  counties,  it  is  well  to 
remember,  are  four  of  every  five  on  an  average  the  country  over; 
that  is  to  say,  in  2,350  of  our  2,950  counties  two-thirds  or  more  of  the 
people  dwell  in  the  open  country  and  in  small  towns  and  villages. 
The  time  has  come  to  recognize  this  fundamental  fact  and  to  act  upon 
it.  The  taxable  wealth  of  an  entire  county  is  required  to  suport  public 
health  work  that  is  organized  to  reach  all  the  people.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  every  dollar  of  taxable  wealth  in  every  county 
ought  to  back  health-promotion  and  disease-prevention  in  the  richest 
town  center  and  poorest  country  district  alike.  Bear  ye  one  another's 
burdens,  and  Every  man  shall  bear  his  own  burden,  are  complementary 
Biblical  truths.  They  are  also  complementary  democratic  doctrines. 
They  mean  local  tax  levies,  reenforced  by  state  and  federal  aid  and 
by  private  benevolence,  local  and  national. 

A  state  health  board  can  function  most  effectively  through  county 
health  machinery.  It  is  hard  to  see  how  it  can  otherwise  reach 
individual  farmsteads  in  sparsely  settled  rural  areas.  In  every  detail — 
in  health  surveys,  in  case  work,  in  advice,  supervision,  care  and  cure — 
public  health  bulks  up  too  big  for  centralized  authorities,  agencies,  and 
institutions.  And  this  is  true  in  urban  and  rural  areas  alike.  Public 
health  is  fundamentally  a  local  problem,  and  at  last  it  must  be  in 
largest  part  a  local  responsibility.  Consider  tuberculosis,  for  instance. 
The  country  over,  the  open  pronounced  tubercular  cases  of  all  sorts 
are  around  ten  per  thousand  inhabitants;  which  means  25,000  cases 
in  a  state  of  two  and  a  half  million  people.  It  is  hardly  thinkable 
that  a  state  sanitarium  with  a  few  hundred  beds  can  be  either  a  diag- 
nosis center  or  a  curing  station  for  such  a  host  of  stricken  sufferers. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  open  cases  in  a  little  county  of  16,000  inhabi- 
tants are  some  160,  and  the  deaths  around  20  per  year.  Clearly,  the 
problem  is  too  large  for  one  big  sanitarium  in  any  state.  Tuberculosis 
is  a  county  problem  and  it  calls  for  county  or  county-group  hospitals. 
Such  hospitals  are  now  required  by  law  in  New  Jersey,  New  York 
and  Massachusetts,  and  other  states  are  moving  ahead  in  the  same 
direction. 

County  Health  Machinery- 
County  Public  Health  Machinery.    Effective  local  public  health  work 
involves: 

1.  A  county  public  health  board,  elected  preferably  by  the  county 
board  of  finance  and  the  county  board  of  education  in  joint  session, 
and  supported  by  a  fund  at  least  one-third  of  which  is  locally  derived, 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  "N.  C.  31 

the  balance  coming  from  state,  federal,  and  other  outside  agencies  and 
organizations  if  possible. 

2.  A  county  health  department,  headed  by  a  whole-time  county  health 
officer,  with  clerical  help,   laboratories,  and  assistants  in  the  largest 
measure  possible.    He  should  be  elected  by  the  county  board  of  health, 
the  county  board  of  finance,  and  the  county  school  board  jointly,  from 
a  certified  list  furnished  by  the  state  board  of  health.     He  should  be 
answerable  to  the  local  health  board  and  through  it  to  the  state  health 
authorities.     He    should    hold    office    without    reelection    during   good 
behavior  and  effective  service.     He  should  have  directive  oversight  of 
all  local  public  health  agents  and  institutions  in  the  county.    He  should 
be  quartered  with  the  county  school  superintendent  or  alongside  him 
with  the  veil  between  rent  in  twain. 

3.  A  county-paid  public  health  nurse,  one  to  start  with  and  more 
just  as  rapidly  as  supporting  funds  can  be  found.    She  should  be  chosen 
by  the  county  health  officer  from  the  certified  list  of  the  state  board, 
to  whom  she  is  finally  responsible  through  the  county  health  officer. 

4.  A  county  tuberculosis  hospital  in  every  county  where  the  annual 
taxes,  state  and  local,  are  $100,000  or  more,  under  permissive  legislation, 
by  a  majority  vote  of  the  voters  voting.     In  areas  where  county  popu- 
lations are  small  and  taxable  properties  meager,  county-group  hospitals 
should  be  established. 

In  short,  a  county  health  organization  should  develop  a  robust  sense 
of  local  responsibility  for  local  health  problems.  It  should  be  removed 
as  far  as  possible  from  local  partisan  politics  and  at  the  same  time 
allow  the  largest  possible  measure  of  local  democratic  participation 
consistent  with  effectiveness. 

To  this  end  the  initiative  of  local  health  authorities  ought  to  be 
respected  and  their  wisdom  conserved  by  bringing  them  together  and 
having  them  assist  in  determining  the  standards  of  local  health  work 
on  the  highest  possible  levels.  In  this  way  local  taxpayers  have  an 
understandable  basis  upon  which  to  compare  costs  and  results  in  the 
various  counties,  to  know  how  their  county  ranks  in  public  health 
work  among  the  counties  of  the  state,  and  whether  or  not  it  is  moving 
ahead  or  lagging  behind— whether  or  not  it  is  getting  results  or  getting 
left.  Such  standards,  democratically  determined,  are  essential  to  the 
best  efforts  of  local  health  officers  and  the  largest  possible  support  in 
local  communities. — E.  C.  Branson,  Kenan  Professor,  Rural  Social 
Science,  University  of  N.  C.,  Chicago,  1919. 


COUNTY  OR  COUNTY-GROUP  PUBLIC  HOSPITALS,  AND  WHY 

JOHN  S.  TERRY,  ROCKINGHAM,  N.  C. 

This  paper  contains  brief  suggestions  concerning  county  or  county- 
group  hospitals,   to  serve  two   and  a  half  million  people,   of  whom 


32  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

1,800,000  are  open  country  dwellers  and  830,000  are  negroes. 

These  hospitals  are  needed  by  people  who  are  hard  to  reach  with 
doctors  and  health  literature,  and  to  arouse  to  self-protection  in  behalf 
of  disease-prevention  and  health-promotion. 

It  is  the  purpose  here  to  suggest  methods  of  obtaining  the  hospitals 
necessary  adequately  to  serve  the  state.  For  our  two  and  a  half 
million  souls  we  have  at  present  6,000  hospital  beds;  in  one  year  we 
have  30,000  hospital  cases,  and  long  waiting  lists.  Our  830,000  negroes 
have  only  200  beds  in  their  four  private  hospitals.  This  means  that 
on  an  average  in  North  Carolina  416  people  have  one  hospital  bed  to 
serve  them,  and  4,150  negroes  have  one  hospital  bed  to  serve  them. 

Program  Proposed 

1.  Educate  all   citizens  as   to  the   need  of  hospitals   by  socializing 
the  idea  of  health,  by  means  of  public  health  literature  and  campaigns, 
issued  and  conducted  by  the  State  and  County  Health  Boards. 

2.  By  state  legislation  follow  either  of  the  two  plans  below  suggested, 
which  have  been  used  elsewhere  with  good  results. 

(a)  The  Indiana  Plan.    Authorize  county  commissioners  to  vote  for 
and  then  establish  county  hospitals,  maintained  by  tax  levies. 

Or  authorize  the  county  commissioners  to  hold  an  election  if  peti- 
tioned by  200  voters,  and,  if  there  is  an  affirmative  vote,  to  establish 
the  hospital  and  levy  taxes. 

(b)  The   New   York   State   Plan.    Pass   a    state   law   requiring   all 
counties  having  more  than  a  certain  population,   or  counties  paying 
a  certain  amount  of  annual  taxes,  state  and  local,  to  build  a  hospital; 
and  require  the  more  sparsely  settled  counties  to  group  themselves 
for  erecting  and  maintaining  hospitals. 

Explanations 

1.  Health  propaganda  is  necessary  because  our  population  is  largely 
illiterate,  and  those  of  measurable  education  are  ignorant  about  public 
health   activities.    For  example,   only   six   cities   and   one   county   in 
North   Carolina,   during  all  the  years  they  have   been   left   to   local 
initiative,  have  established  free  public  hospitals  on  a  tax  basis.    Yet 
we  have  a  law  which  permits  bond  sales  for  the  purpose  of  founding 
county  or  community  hospitals. 

2.  County  hospitals  are  needed  as  active  working  centers  for  health, 
and  to  serve  as  headquarters  for  the  county  board  of  health  and  the 
health  officers  and  nurses. 

Good  laboratories  can  be  built  up.  Able  men  can  be  kept  at  home, 
instead  of  being  forced  to  go  to  distant  cities. 

Our  people  need  to  be  given  free  medical  examinations  and  advice, 
especially  the  school  children. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  33 

Teh  of  every  1,000  people  in  the  United  States  are  open  pronounced 
cases  of  tuberculosis.  Twenty-five  thousand  people  in  North  Carolina 
need  hospital  treatment,  instead  of  suffering  and  dying  for  lack  of 
proper  care.  Moreover,  at  present  they  are  left  to  scatter  tubercular 
germs  among  others.  So  of  all  other  communicable  diseases. 

Other  states  have  enacted  hospital  legislation.  New  York  state  has 
31  Tb.  hospitals,  and  requires  every  county  of  35,000  or  more  inhabi- 
tants to  erect  one.  In  Indiana  the  County  Commissioners  can  vote 
to  establish  a  hospital  and  proceed  to  do  so,  or  a  county  can  vote 
on  the  matter.  These  hospitals  can  be  built  by  the  issue  of  county 
bonds. 

For  example,  our  University  infirmary  here,  conducted  by  a  general 
tax,  is  an  example  of  the  socialized  hospital,  where  all  receive  atten- 
tion freely,  and  where  any  one  of  the  students  may  receive  examina- 
tion and  advice  as  to  his  physical  condition  at  stated  times. 

The  staff  should  consist  of  one  surgeon  and  one  or  more  interne; 
a  pathologist,  a  dentist,  and  an  eye,  ear,  nose,  and  throat  specialist. 

They  should  be  selected  by  the  local  hospital  board,  subject  to  the 
ratification  of  the  State  Board  of  Health.  One  member  of  the  Hospital 
staff  should  be  on  the  County  Health  Board. 

The  hospital  should  be  freely  open  to  all,  with  graduated  charge  for 
different  wards,  private  rooms,  and  nursing  service. — John  S.  Terry, 
Rockingham,  N.  C. 

Nov.  24,  1919. 


HEALTH  AND  SANITATION  AS  REQUIRED  SUBJECTS  IN  ALL 
SCHOOLS  RECEIVING  STATE  AID 

A.  R.  ANDERSON,  STATESVTLLE,  N.  C. 

I.    Scope  of  the  Report 

The  findings  in  this  special  committee  concern  the  teaching  of 
hygiene  and  sanitation  to  (1)  approximately  634,000  elementary  school 
pupils,  (2)  24,000  high  school  pupils  in  486  high  schools,  (3)  5,800 
normal  school  pupils  in  7  normal  and  training  schools,  (4)  2,500  col- 
lege students  in  the  State  University  and  the  State  A.  and  E.  College. 
Here  are  the  citizens  of  tomorrow,  and  in  giving  them  practical  in- 
struction in  hygiene  and  sanitation  we  are  not  only  safeguarding  the 
health  of  the  state  but  we  are  also  raising  future  standards  of  health 
to  an  extent  hitherto  undreamed  of  in  North  Carolina.  We  can  do 
much  to  improve  health  conditions  in  all  communities  now,  but  we 
can  do  far  more  for  future  generations  by  training  the  youth  of  the 
state  properly  in  these  most  important  subjects. 

3 


34  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Before  considering  any  recommendations  whatsoever  we  must  face 
the  fact  that  it  is  not  nearly  enough  merely  to  require  all  the  afore- 
mentioned schools  to  place  courses  of  hygiene  and  sanitation  in  the 
courses  of  instruction.  We  must  change  radically  the  attitude  as- 
sumed towards  these  studies  and  the  methods  of  teaching  these  studies 
by  the  teachers  in  these  schools.  And,  furthermore,  we  must  change 
the  methods  of  teaching  hygiene  and  sanitation  to  these  teachers. 
Finally,  we  must  make  this  instruction  effective  in  every  state-aided 
school  by  the  supervision  and  reports  of  proper  state  and  county  offi- 
cials. These  changes,  no  doubt,  will  be  gradual,  but  the  benefits  to 
the  state  even  at  the  end  of  the  first  year  would  be  inestimable. 

II.    Committee  Proposals 

The  teaching  of  hygiene  and  sanitation  in  all  schools  receiving  state 
aid  seems  to  mean: 

(1)  That  every  teacher,  before  receiving  a  license  to  teach,  be  re- 
quired to  make  a  careful  study  of  hygiene  and  sanitation  and  methods 
of  teaching  the  same,  and  be  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  importance 
of  practical  instruction  of  children  in  these  subjects. 

(2)  That  the  instruction  of  all  school  teachers  at  state-aided  institu- 
tions shall  include  practical  training  in  a  demonstration  rural  school, 
authorized  by  the   State  Board  of  Health,  and  constructed  and   con- 
ducted according  to  the  specifications  and  ideas  of  the  most  successful 
of  these  demonstration  schools  in  the  United  States. 

(3)  That  students  at  the  State  University,  the  State  A.  and  E.  Col- 
lege, and  at  all  normal  schools  under  state  control  or  receiving  state 
aid  be  required  to  take  a  thorough,  practical  course  in  hygiene  and 
sanitation,  and  in  addition  that  the  standard  of  living  at  these  insti- 
tutions be  raised  by  frequent  periodical  inspections  of  living  condi- 
tions. 

(4)  That  all  county  public  schools  shall   have   thorough   practical 
courses  in  hygiene  and  sanitation  suited  to  the  various  grades,  and 
that  a  uniform  method  be  adopted  throughout  the  state  for  estimat- 
ing the  work  done  by  the  teachers  in  the  various  schools. 

(5)  That  the  county  health  officer  be  responsible  to  the  State  Board 
of  Health  for  the  enforcement  of  health  regulations  in  the  schools  of 
his  county,  and  that  he  shall  make  reports  at  the  end  of  the  school 
year   concerning  the   health   status   of  the   public   schools   under   his 
supervision. 

III.    Explanations  In  Brief 

1.  The  teacher's  course  in  hygiene  and  sanitation.  The  first  fact 
to  recognize  in  the  teaching  of  hygiene  and  sanitation  is  that  the 
teachers  do  not  recognize  the  great  importance  of  training  the  children 
in  these  subjects,  nor  do  they  often  understand  the  first  principles  of 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  35 

giving  the  child  a  practical,  working  knowledge  of  them.  A  former 
county  superintendent  stated  that  90  percent  of  the  schools  of  his 
county  used  the  text  on  hygiene  merely  as  a  reading  book,  and  that 
particular  county  probably  has  the  best  public  schools  in  the  state. 
The  teacher  who  does  not  apply  the  lessons  of  hygiene  to  the  school- 
room she  is  teaching  in,  and  to  the  health  of  every  child  she  teaches, 
is  failing  utterly  in  her  work.  Certainly  every  teacher  should  be 
adequately  trained  in  these  subjects,  and  the  county  superintendent 
must  provide  for  the  instruction  of  all  those  teachers  under  his 
charge  who  are  not  so  trained. 

2.  The   instruction   of  the  teachers   by   demonstration   methods.     It 
has  been  proved  that  one  of  the  best  methods  of  giving  instructions 
in   teaching   is  by   the   demonstration   of   teaching  in   a   model   class 
room.     We  now  propose  to  carry  this  a  step  further  and  to  train  the 
rural  school  teacher  in  a  demonstration  rural  school.     Probably  the 
best  example  of  such  a  school  is  the  Demonstration  Rural  School  of 
the  First  District  Normal  School  at  Kirksville,  Mo.    At  every  insti- 
tution where   teachers   are   trained   a   model   rural   school   should   be 
conducted  under  the  supervision  of  capable  teachers.     The  demonstra- 
tion  would   include   such   things   as   the    following:      construction   of 
building,  ventilation,  heating  arrangements,  precautions  against  flies, 
toilet  arrangements,  construction  of  sanitary  privies,  sanitary  drink- 
ing arrangements,   playgrounds,    the   medical    inspection    of   children, 
and  countless  other  things  too  numerous   to   mention.    If  we  expect 
the  rural  teacher  to  accomplish  much  in  the  practical  instruction  of 
children,  she  must  go  to  her  school  with  clear  ideas  concerning  what 
she  wants  to  do.     The  teacher  must  have  a  standard,  a  visualization 
of  essential  factors  in  health  building  which  the  photographic  plates 
in  hygienic  textbooks  and  theoretical  instruction   do  not  give  them. 

3.  The  courses  at  the  University,  the  A.  and  E.   College,  and   our 
normal   schools.     This    state    is    far   behind    in   the    establishment   of 
courses  of  hygiene  and  sanitation  in  those  institutions  under  its  con- 
trol.    If   these   institutions   are   to   lead   the   state   and   to   train   the 
teachers  for  its  schools,  they  must  lead  in  no  uncertain  half-way  man- 
ner.   And  we  must  practice  what  we  preach.     It  is  highly  illogical 
to  think  that  lasting  lessons  in  sanitation  can  be  taught  in  an  unsani- 
tary class-room  of  a  school  whose  dormitories  are  far  from   model. 
This  lesson  must  first  be  taught  to  every  teacher  and  every  student  in 
these  schools.     Teachers  cannot  train  others  in  subjects  in  which  they 
are  themselves  untrained,  or  worse — indifferent  and  unconcerned. 

That  brings  us  to  a  brief  consideration  of  the  second  proposal  in 
this  recommendation,  the  improvement  of  living  conditions  in  all 
these  schools.  It  is  a  deplorable  fact  that  the  State  University  was 
found  in  an  excellent  condition  by  a  committee  of  investigation  of  a 
neighboring  state  in  every  detail  except  in  the  living  conditions  of  the 


36  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

students.  These  were  judged  very  poor  by  the  committee.  It  is 
probable  that  an  investigation  of  other  state  schools  would  reveal  the 
same  defect.  We  must  improve  these  conditions  by  improving  the 
attitude  of  the  students  concerning  health  education.  The  inspec- 
tion of  living  quarters  would  naturally  follow  practical  instruction 
in  these  subjects  and  would  insure  the  success  of  the  plan. 

4.  The  courses  in  public  schools  and  uniform  methods  of  estimating 
results.     As  has  been  pointed  out,  it  is  not  enough  merely  to   have 
courses  in  hygiene  and  sanitation  compulsory  in  the  schools.     There 
must  be  a  follow-up  method  to  see  that  these  courses  function  properly. 
Probably  current  methods  of  teaching   and   old   text-books  would   be 
entirely  destroyed.     The  teacher  must  be  impressed  with  the  fact  that 
teaching  a  child  the  length  of  the  digestive  tract  is  not  nearly  so  im- 
portant as  teaching  him  how  to  keep  his  teeth  clean.     Naturally,  from 
her  study  of  sanitation,  she  will  have  a  clear  idea  of  the  proportional 
value  of  different  lessons. 

Dr.  J.  Mace  Andress,  of  the  Boston  Normal  School,  has  devised  an 
excellent  system  of  tabulating  results  and  of  determining  the  value 
of  each  teacher  as  a  health  instructor.  She  is  given  so  many  points 
for  every  advance  in  health  instruction:  for  instance,  5  points  for 
daily  inspection  of  hands  and  teeth,  2  points  for  her  knowledge  of 
the  number  of  children  having  defective  teeth,  etc.  Under  this  system 
Dr.  Andress  has  concluded  that  the  teacher  making  45  points  or  less 
is  a  failure;  between  45  and  100,  good;  above  100,  excellent.  For 
further  information  regarding  this  system,  reference  is  made  to  Dr. 
Andress's  Health  Education  in  Rural  Schools. 

5.  The  responsibility  of  the  county  health  officer  of  the  State  Board 
of  Health  for  the  proper  functioning  of  these  courses  of  instruction. 
The  county  health  department  should  be  so  organized  as  to  include  at 
least  one  competent  assistant  to  the  county  health  officer,  whose  sole 
task  would  be  the  supervision  of  the  health  of  the  county  schools.     He 
should  see  that  all  schools  function  properly  in  health  education,  and, 
if  necessary,   should   give  instruction   to   those   teachers  who   do   not 
come  up  to  the  standard.     Finally,  he  should  consolidate  the  reports 
of  the  schools  of  his  county  concerning  the  work  accomplished  during 
a  school  year  in  health  education  and  the  relative  health  standing  of 
the  various  schools  of  the  county.    Through  the  county  health  officer 
he  would  be  directly  responsible  to   the   State  Board   of  Health  for 
these  reports   and   regulations. 

A  reorganization  of  the  State  Board  of  Health  has  been  advised  to 
include  authority  "to  supervise  and  direct  all  state  and  local  health 
activities,  agencies,  and  institutions  whatsoever."  Under  this  depart- 
ment might  well  be  placed  a  special  branch  for  the  control  and  direc- 
tion of  health  education  in  our  public  schools. — A.  R.  Anderson,  Chair- 
man sub-committee  on  Health  and  Sanitation  in  all  State-aided  Schools. 

Nov.  24,  1919. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  37 

RECREATION  FOR  RURAL  PEOPLE 

CABY  LANIEE  HARRINGTON,  GREENVILLE,  N.  C. 

I.    Brief  Surrey  of  Present  Conditions 

The  country  people  of  America  at  present  are  personal  and  local  in 
their  habits  of  thought,  dogmatic,  over-serious  and  over-sordid.  They 
are  socially  isolated.  Some  steps  for  wholesome  recreation  and  im- 
provement of  social  conditions  in  general  have  been  taken  in  the 
large  towns  and  cities  of  this  state,  but  comparatively  little  has  been 
done  by  our  rural  communities.  Several  states,  including  North  and 
South  Dakota,  New  York,  Illinois,  and  Virginia,  are  ahead  of  us  in 
this  respect.  The  neighborhood  cooperation,  romance,  spirit  of  adven- 
ture and  sociability  of  the  earlier  days  of  country  life  are  gone. 
American  farmers  everywhere  tend  to  be  individualistic  and  almost 
impervious  to  new  ideas  of  life  and  progress.  They  are  unorganized, 
complacent,  and  socially  backward.  The  younger  generations  have 
little  oportunity  to  grow  into  wholesome,  aggressive  citizens  on  the 
farm,  and  have  consequently  looked  to  the  city  for  better  opportunities 
and  professions.  Long  seasonal  hours  of  labor  and  lack  of  scientific 
training  have  made  life  a  drudgery  on  the  farm  and  the  rural  people 
have  lost  the  sense  of  appreciation  of  play,  life,  love,  and  the  spiritual 
values  they  develop. 

Aside  from  the  State  Community  Service  Bureau  and  the  high 
school  athletics  of  a  score  of  the  county  schools  there  are  no  homebred 
leaders  in  the  field  to  advance  this  idea,  and  if  progress  is  to  be  made 
it  must  be  made  slowly  and  gradually.  The  changing  conditions  of  the 
last  few  decades  have  quickened  the  sense  of  economic  values  and 
depressed  the  sense  of  social  values  in  country  regions  everywhere. 
The  movement  for  play  and  recreation  in  country  areas  purposes  to 
bring  to  country  people -a  fuller  life — socially  unifying,  satisfying,  and 
wholesome.  Our  country  people  dwell  in  solitary  farmsteads,  their 
work  is  most  largely  solitary,  and  their  recreations,  like  their  work,  are 
solitary  for  the  most  part.  Usually  it  is  lacking  altogether.  People 
who  do  not  play  together  never  learn  to  work  together.  Team  play 
is  promotive  of  team  work  for  business  advantage  and  social  progress. 

II.    Program  Proposals 

1.  Make  the  country  school  the  social  center  of  the  country  com- 
munity. The  only  country  school  that  can  be  such  a  center  is  the 
consolidated  school  with  motor  trucks  and  a  teacherage  that  houses 
the  colony  of  teachers  in  comfort  during  the  school  term,  and  the  prin- 


38          STATE  KECONSTBUCTION  STUDIES 

cipal  and  his  family  the  whole  year  through.  Weak  little  one-teacher 
schools  canot  be  social  centers,  because  they  are  empty  and  deserted 
for  six  or  eight  months  of  the  year  in  the  country  regions  of  North 
Carolina.  The  consolidated  school  ought  to  be  a  detail  in  a  county- 
wide  plan  of  consolidation.  The  largest  value  of  such  schools  is  social 
rather  than  academic. 

2.  There  is  needed  for  such  a  school  a  principal  and  teachers  of 
initiative  who  can  introduce  games,  school  and  inter-school  athletics, 
school  and   school-community  debates,   musical   entertainments,   festi- 
vals, community  fairs,  Boy  Scouts,  Camp  Fire  Girls,  lectures,  moving 
pictures,  pageants,  and  so  on  and  on.     These  social  play  undertakings 
of  the  consodlidated  school  could  be  financed  by   (1)    entertainments 
with  small  admission  fees,   (2)   club  membership  dues,   (3)   voluntary 
contributions,  and   (4)   public  appropriations. 

3.  Country  recreation  must  be  native;   it  must  develop  and  express 
the  intrinsic  sources  of  joy  in  country  life  itself.     It  is  a  mistake  to 
import  city  amusements  into  country  areas,  because  they  only  whet 
the  appetite  for  more  of  such  amusements  and  lead  the  young  people 
out  of  the  country  into  the  city  where  they  can  find  such  amusements 
in  unrestricted  measure.    The   country  never   can   compete   with   the 
flamboyant,  the  fantastic,  and  bizarre  spectacles  of  city  life,   and  it 
ought  never  to  try  to  do  it.     But  it  can  develop  its  own  original  types 
of  social  recreation,  and  it  must  do  so  if  the  cityward  drift  is  to  be 
checked  and  the  country  regions  not  left  to  develop  social  decay.    This 
is  one  of  the  things  that  every  country  community  must  do  in  sheer 
self  defense. — Gary  L.  Harrington,  Chairman  sub-committee  on  Rural 
Recreation. 

November  24,  1919. 


PUBLIC  HEALTH  STUDIES 

Outline 

1.  County  health  departments,  whole-time  health  officers,  and  pub- 
lic health  nurses. 

2.  County  or  county-group  hospitals   (public)   and  why. 

3.  Health  and  sanitation  as  required  subjects  in  all  schools  receiv- 
ing state  aid. 

4.  Wholesome  recreation,  town  and  country,  and  why. 

Bibliography 

Reading  references  for  the  committee  on  public  health,  numbered 
to  correspond  with  the  suggested  field  of  committee  investigations; 
tentative  findings  to  be  reported  at  the  North  Carolina  Club  session, 
November  24,  1919;  final  matured  report  on  May  31,  1920.  The  material 
is  all  at  hand  in  the  seminar  room  of  rural  social  science  at  the 
University. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  "N.  C.  39 

The  Subject  in  General 

Public  Health  Legislation  in  North  Carolina  in  1919— The  State 
Health  Bulletin,  March,  1919. 

The  State  Department  of  Public  Health:  (1)  Departmental  activi- 
ties, (2)  Recommendations  to  the  General  Assembly  of  1919,  (3) 
The  Nation's  Manpower,  editorial,  (4)  Influenza  deaths  by  counties, 
(5)  Graph  of  North  Carolina  deaths  by  war,  tuberculosis,  typhoid, 
and  of  children  under  two  years  of  age — MSS.  by  Dr.  W.  S.  Rankin, 
State  Health  Secretary,  University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No. 
614.12. 

Health  Work  in  North  Carolina — Miss  Ernestine  Noa.  A  North 
Carolina  Club  study,  1918-19.  University  News  Letter,  Vol.  V,  No.  26. 

What  the  State  Health  Board  of  North  Carolina  is  Doing— Reprint 
from  the  State  Health  Board  Report. 

Sanitation  in  the  South — Thorndike  Saville,  Extension  Leaflet,  Vol. 
II,  No.  9.  University  of  North  Carolina. 

Preventive  Medicine  and  Hygiene — Milton  J.  Rosenau.  D.  Appleton 
and  Company,  New  York.  1,286  pp. 

1.  County  Health  Work. 

Public  Health  Work  in  Rural  Areas,  a  report  by  E.  C.  Branson, 
Committee  Chairman,  American  Rural  Life  Association — Dwight 
Sanderson,  Secretary,  Cornell  University,  Ithaca,  N.  Y. 

County  Responsibility  for  Public  Welfare,  pp.  160-2  in  the  North 
Carolina  Club  Year-Book — E.  C.  Branson.  North  Carolina  University 
Record  No.  159. 

Value  of  County  Health  Departments,  press  article  September  15, 
1918— State  Health  Board,  Raleigh. 

Twenty-one  County  Health  Departments  in  North  Carolina,  map, 
county  ofllcers,  etc.,  on  October  25,  1919 — University  Rural  Social 
Science  Files,  No.  614.051. 

The  Whole-Time  County  Health  OflScer,  special  bulletin,  No.  27, 
August,  1913 — North  Carolina  Board  of  Health,  Raleigh. 

Public  Health  Nursing  in  North  Carolina:  a  chapter  in  the  1917-18 
Year-Book  of  the  North  Carolina  Club  at  the  University,  and  a  letter 
on  Public  Health  Nurses  in  North  Carolina,  number,  location,  etc., 
on  December  29,  1916 — Dr.  L.  B.  McBrayer,  Bureau  Chief  of  State 
Public  Health  Nursing,  Sanatorium,  N.  C. 

Public  Health  Nursing— Ella  Phillips  Crandall,  National  Organiza- 
tion for  Public  Health  Nurses — University  Rural  Social  Science  Files, 
No.  614.051. 

The  Public  Health  Nurse— C.  E.  A.  Winslow,  of  Yale,  Children's 
Year  Leaflet  No.  6.  Children's  Bureau,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Public  Health  Nurses— University  News  Letter,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  25. 


40  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

The  County-Paid  Nurse — University  of  North  Carolina  News  Let- 
ter, Vol.  V,  No.  48. 

Public  Health  Centers— American  Journal  of  Public  Health,  March, 
1921. 

2.  County  or  County-Group  Hospitals. 

Rural  Hospitals  in  Virginia — University  of  Virginia  News  Letter, 
August  30,  1919. 

County  Hospital  Laws  of  New  York  State,  a  compilation  of  Laws, 
Regulations,  and  Agencies  Relating  to  Tuberculosis — Herman  M. 
Biggs,  State  Commissioner,  Albany,  N.  Y.  15-31  pp. 

County  Tuberculosis  Hospitals,  County  Hospitals  in  General,  Hos- 
pitals in  Fifth  Class  Cities  (under  10,000  inhabitants)  in  Indiana- 
Bulletin  of  Indiana  State  Board  of  Charities,  Indianapolis. 

3.  Health  Education  in  Rural  Schools — J.  Mace  Andress.    Hough- 
ton  Mifflin  Company,  Boston.     321  pp. 

Health  Bulletins  of  the  Federal  Bureau  of  Education,  Washington, 
D.  C. 

4.  Play  and  Recreation — Henry  S.  Curtis.    Ginn  and  Company,  New 
York.     265  pp. 

Leisure,  Recreation,  and  Life — Raymond  Robins.  Playground  and 
Recreation  Association  of  America,  1  Madison  Avenue,  New  York. 
4  pp. 

Recreation  Bibliography— The  Sage  Foundation,  400  Metropolitan 
Tower,  New  York.  37  pp. 

Children  and  Play — The  American  Child,  Feb.,  1921.     pp.  345-58. 

Fear  God  in  Your  Own  Village  (chapter  on  the  Movies) — Richard 
Morse.  Henry  Holt  and  Company,  New  York. 

Public  Health  Committee 

1.  County   Hospitals:     J.    S.    Terry,    Chairman,    Richmond    County, 
Rockingham. 

2.  County    Health    Departments,    Whole-Time    Health    Officers,    and 
Public  Health  Nurses:    Blackwell  Markham,  Durham  County,  Durham. 

3.  Health  and  Sanitation,  as  required  studies  in  state-aided  schools: 
A.  R.  Anderson,  Iredell  County,  Statesville. 

4.  Recreation,  Town  and  Country:     C.  L.  Harrington,  Pitt  County, 
Greenville. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  41 


CHAPTER  V 
STATE  HIGHWAY  POLICIES 

S.    O.   WOETHINGTON,    WlNTEBVILLE,    N.    C. 

Any  country,  nation,  or  state  that  hopes  to  keep  pace  with  the  world 
must  adopt  the  improvements  of  the  day.  The  plodding  horse  has  had 
his  day.  The  uncertain  and  slow  freight  train  has  had  its  day.  The 
motor  truck  and  its  competent  service  is  upon  us.  Do  we  expect 
to  use  it  to  advantage?  If  so,  then  we  must  prepare  for  it.  Every- 
one recognizes  that  our  present  system  of  rural  transportation  is 
inadequate  for  truck  service.  What  does  this  mean?  It  means  that 
to  make  use  of  the  truck  service  and  enjoy  a  better  transportation 
system  in  North  Carolina  we  must  have  a  better  system  of  roads. 

Just  what  roads  to  build  and  just  how  we  are  to  build  those  roads 
has  been  discussed  for  years.  Township  after  township  and  county 
after  county  has  issued  bonds  and  attempted  to  improve  its  roads. 
In  a  certain  measure  there  has  been  an  improvement,  at  least  an 
honest  effort  toward  improvement.  In  greater  part  it  has  been  a 
failure  and  a  waste  of  money.  Anyone  can  readily  see  that  this  is 
no  job  for  a  township  nor  even  a  county.  The  job  is  too  big.  If  we 
ever  progress  along  this  line  there  must  be  a  power  back  of  the 
job  to  push  it,  and  that  power  can  be  none  other  than  the  state. 

Since  the  road  question  narrows  itself  down  to  the  state,  our  next 
proposition  is  just  what  roads  should  the  state  build  and  what  methods 
should  be  used  in  obtaining  funds  to  build  these  roads. 

To  my  mind,  the  following  outline  suggests  the  most  logical  and 
adequate  system  for  building  roads  in  North  Carolina  today: 

Highway  Systems 

1.  A   system    of   national   highways    built    and    maintained    by   the 
Federal  Government  exclusive  of  state  aid — approximately  300  miles. 

2.  A  primary  system  of  state  highways,  traversing  the  state  from 
east  to  west,  built  and  maintained  by  the  state  exclusive  of  county 
aid — approximately  1,000   miles. 

3.  A  secondary  system  of  state  highways  built  and  maintained  by 
the  state  connecting  the  county  seats   of  the  different   counties — ap- 
proximately 5,000  miles. 

4.  A  system  of  county  roads  built  and  maintained  by  the  counties 
alone,   comprising  all   roads   not  included   in  the  state   and   national 
highways. 


42  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

National  Highways 

1.  These   roads   should   be   built   of   the   best   known    hard    surface 
material. 

2.  The  first  of  these  roads  should  meet  the  national  highway  coming 
through   Virginia  by  way   of  Roanoke  to  Winston-Salem,   thence   by 
way  of  Greensboro  and  Charlotte  into  South  Carolina. 

3.  The  second  one  should  meet  the  Capital  Highway  coming  from 
Richmond  to  Henderson,  thence  by  way  of  Raleigh  and  Fayetteville 
to  South  Carolina. 

State  Highways,  Primary  and  Secondary 

1.  This  system,  like  the  first,  should  be  built  of  the  best  available 
material. 

2.  The  first  of  these  highways  should  start  at  Asheville  and  go  by 
way  of  Charlotte  to  Wilmington,  the  engineers  using  their  discretion 
as  to  what  other  towns  it  shall  go  through. 

3.  The    second    should    start    at    Winston-Salem,    passing    through 
Greensboro    and    Durham   to   Raleigh.     Here    it   should   branch,    one 
fork  going  by  way  of  Rocky  Mount  and  Tarboro  to  Elizabeth  City; 
the   other  should   go   by   way   of   Goldsboro,   Kinston,   New   Bern,   to 
Morehead  City.     Asheville  and   Statesville  should  be  connected  with 
Salisbury  by  a  state  highway  where  it  meets  the  proposed  National 
Highway. 

4.  The  proposed  secondary  system  of  state  highways,  not  being  sub- 
ject to  such  heavy  traffic  as  the  primary  system,  could  be  built  of  a 
cheaper  grade  of  hard  surface  material. 

5.  Such  of  these  secondary  roads  as  lead  to  sections  that  promise 
to  require  a  primary  road  should  be  built  with  that  end  in  view. 

6.  The  state  should  create  a  fund  for  building  these  roads  by  (1)  a 
property  tax  and   (2)   a  special  road  tax  on  all  automobiles,  automo- 
bile accessories,  gasoline,  and  cylinder  oil,   (3)  the  legislature  should 
tax  all  land  within  one  mile  of  the  highway,   on  either  side,   with 
one-eighth  the  cost  of  the  road,   (4)   serial  bonds  to  be  issued  as  the 
money  is  needed.     These  to  be  paid  off  at  specified  times  out  of  the 
money  from  the  different  taxes. 

7.  The  present  automobile  license  tax  to  be  increased  to  one  dollar 
per  horse  power  and  the   money  used   in   keeping   up   the   highway 
commission  and  to  maintain  the  roads  after  they  are  built. 

8.  The  State  Highway  Department  should  be  adequately  supported 
so  as  to  have  the  best  engineers  to  carry  on  the  work. 

County  Highways 

1.  The  roads  left  to  the  county  should  be  built  of  dirt,  well  located, 
graded,  and  drained,  and  surfaced  with  gravel  or  properly  mixed 
sand  and  clay. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  43 

2.  Each   county   should   perfect   its   own   organization   for   carrying 
out  this  work. 

3.  The  state  should  furnish  to  each  county  a  competent  highway 
engineer. 

4.  All  bonds  previously  issued  by  the  township  should  be  bought  by 
the  county,  thus  placing  the  debt  all  in  one  place. 

5.  The  counties  should  use  their  convict  forces  as  labor  in  carrying 
out  this  work,  under  state  supervision  and  state  highway  engineers. 

6.  Through  local  property  taxes  and  special  assessments  the  coun- 
ties can  raise  the  amount  required  to  build  their  roads. 

7.  Each  county  should  maintain  its  own  parcel  post  routes  and  the 
proceeds  should  be  used  from  these  for  local  road  building. 

My  suggestion  would  be  that  in  carrying  out  this  plan  we  try  to 
build  the  primary  system  in  the  next  five  years.  The  present  federal 
aid  fund,  which  is  a  dollar  for  every  dollar  we  give,  the  automobile 
and  auto  accessories  taxes,  together  with  the  tax  of  one-eighth  of  the 
cost  to  be  paid  by  the  adjoining  property  owner,  would  easily  pay 
the  $35,000,000  estimated  as  the  cost  of  these  roads.  Then  we  would 
be  ready  to  begin  on  the  secondary  system,  which  is  estimated  to  cost 
around  $100,000,000.  With  the  ever-increasing  federal  aid,  and  in- 
creasing state  taxes,  we  would  easily  be  able  to  build  this  system 
within  twenty  years.  Of  course,  to  obtain  the  money  necessary  to 
start  to  work  with,  it  will  be  necessary  to  issue  bonds.  These  should 
be  kept  paid  up  as  nearly  as  possible,  and  at  no  time  should  more  be 
issued  than  are  needed.  By  this  plan  we  hope  to  do  away  with  the 
piecemeal  system  of  building  roads  and  place  the  burden  on  shoulders 
broad  enough  to  bear  it. 

Just  as  we  go  to  the  printers  with  this  bulletin  the  newspapers 
report  the  passage  of  a  bill  by  the  state  legislature  appropriating 
$50,000,000  for  highway  building,  as  follows: 

The  North  Carolina  State  road  law,  just  passed,  provides  for  the 
construction  and  maintenance  by  the  state  of  a  state  system  of  hard- 
surfaced  and  other  dependable  roads  connecting  by  the  most  practical 
routes  the  various  county  seats  and  other  principal  towns  of  every 
county  in  the  state;  also  connecting  with  the  state  institutions  and 
with  the  roads  through  state  parks,  national  forest  reserves  and  link- 
ing with  the  state  highways  of  adjoining  states. 

A  $50,000,000  bond  issue  is  authorized  toward  the  construction 
of  this  state  highway  system,  and  the  funds  derived  from  motor 
vehicle  license  fees,  plus  a  one-cent  gasoline  tax,  are  to  be  used  for 
the  support  of  the  State  Highway  Commission,  paying  the  interest  on 
the  bonds  and  the  maintenance  of  the  state  system  of  highways.  Ten 
million  dollars  are  to  be  sold  during  1920  and  1921,  and  more  than 
this  if  the  State  Highway  Commission  can  expend  more  money. 


44          STATE  KECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

\ 

The  state  is  to  be  divided  into  nine  construction  districts,  to  which 
the  construction  funds  are  to  be  apportioned  on  the  same  basis  as 
the  federal-aid  apportionment;  that  is,  one-third  in  the  ratio  of  the 
area  of  each  construction  district  to  the  entire  area  of  the  state; 
one-third  in  the  ratio  of  the  population  of  the  district  to  the  entire 
population  of  the  state,  and  one-third  in  the  ratio  of  state  highway 
mileage  of  the  district  in  proportion  to  the  total  mileage  of  state 
highways. 

The  State  Highway  Commission  is  given  ample  power  for  acquir- 
ing rights  of  way,  taking  over  the  state  system  from  the  counties, 
acquiring  and  operating  quarries,  etc.,  for  procuring  material  to  be 
used  in  constructing  and  maintaining  this  system. 

Provision  is  made  for  the  appointment  of  a  State  Highway  Commis- 
sion consisting  of  ten  members,  one  from  each  of  the  nine  construc- 
tion districts  and  one  from  the  state  at  large.  The  term  of  office  of 
the  present  State  Highway  Commissioner,  Mr.  Frank  Page,  is  not 
interfered  with.  There  is  also  a  provision  for  the  working  of  all  able- 
bodied  male  state  convicts  on  the  state  highways.  The  bill  contem- 
plates the  construction  and  maintenance  of  approximately  5,500  miles, 
and  is  believed  to  be  the  most  constructive  measure  ever  enacted  by 
a  North  Carolina  legislature. — S.  O.  Worthington,  Chairman,  Sub- 
Committee  on  State  Highway  Policies. 

December  8,  1919. 


MOTOR  TRUCK  SERVICE,  THE  COUNTRY  PARCELS  POST,  AND 
INTERURBAN  ELECTRIC  RAILWAYS 

I.  M.  ABELKOP,  DUBHAM,  N.  C. 

Scope  of  Report 

The  purpose  of  my  report  is  to  bring  forward  some  feasible  and 
practical  plans  and  reasons  for  their  necessity. 

1st.  The  development  of  the  Country  Parcel  Post  with  regard  to  the 
movement  of  produce  from  producers  to  consumers. 

2d.    The  best  possible  use  of  the  motor  truck  for  short  hauls. 

3d.  The  development  of  our  interurban  electric  railways  for  facili- 
tating the  movement  of  freight  and  passengers  in  the  sections  of 
our  state  that  are  sadly  lacking  in  means  of  transportation. 

A  Country  Parcels  Post  System 

The  country  schoolhouse  should  be  made  the  Parcel  Post  office  of 
its  district;  the  school  teacher  be  made  a  Parcel  Post  agent;  the 
motor  trucks  be  used  by  the  government  to  take  this  parcel  post 
business  to  the  cities.  To  this  plan  we  can  add  a  plan  in  the  cities 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  45 

where  every  school  community  can  have  a  secretary  who  can  keep  in 
touch  with  the  Country  Parcel  Post  agent  at  the  country  schoolhouse, 
who  is  also  the  farmers'  secretary.  Such  a  country  school  would  need 
to  be  a  consolidated  school;  no  other  could  possibly  serve  as  a  parcel 
post  center. 

By  keeping  in  touch  with  one  another  every  school  district  benefits 
the  others,  in  that  the  city  secretary  knows  or  is  informed  by  the 
people  he  is  serving  as  to  what  produce  they  desire  and  the  farmers' 
secretary  notifies  the  farmers  as  to  what  is  wanted  and  it  is  shipped 
direct  to  the  consumer.  The  Parcel  Post  truck  delivers  it  right  to 
the  consumer's  door. 

The  operation  of  this  direct  marketing  plan  between  organized  com- 
munities will  show  very  soon,  also,  the  importance  of  permanent  road 
construction.  A  system  of  great  trunk  highways,  crossing  the  conti- 
nent east  and  west,  north  and  south,  can  be  built  and  paid  for  largely 
out  of  the  receipts  of  this  motor  transport  service  of  the  Post  Office 
Department.  They  would  be  post  roads  as  intended  by  federal  law, 
and  they  would  connect  with  roads  built  by  the  states  and  local  sub- 
divisions. 

No  more  important  task  could  be  undertaken  by  this  government 
now,  and  it  would  furnish  constructive  employment  to  thousands  of 
those  who  have  returned  from  overseas  with  experience  in  road  con- 
struction and  truck  operation  in  France,  Belgium,  and  Italy. 

When  you  link  the  post  office  and  the  schoolhouse  together  you  have 
laid  down  the  foundation  for  real  progress  along  many  lines. 

Organizing  the  community  by  means  of  the  school  building,  the 
property  of  all,  will  help  weld  the  citizenship  into  one  composite 
whole  as  nothing  else  could  do.  It  will  bring  neighbors  together  for 
many  varied  purposes — educational,  social,  recreational,  and  so  forth. 
And  when  people  get  together  they  develop  agreement,  fellowship,  and 
cooperation. 

Making  the  schoolhouse  a  station  of  the  Postal  Service,  with  one 
of  those  engaged  in  education  work  as  the  responsible  agent  of  the 
community  and  also  as  an  agent  of  the  Post  Office  Department,  means 
the  linking  up  of  the  individual  citizen  with  the  Federal  Government. 
It  means  that  government,  instead  of  being  paternal,  is  fraternal. 

With  all  this  we  have  the  reduction  in  the  prices  of  commodities 
to  the  consumer  and  an  increased  price  for  his  produce  to  the  pro- 
ducer. 

"An  income  of  $200,000,000  is  possible  from  motorized  parcel-post 
service  in  this  country  and  at  an  expenditure  of  only  $50,000,000," 
said  Mr.  Blakeslee.  "I  don't  say  that's  possible  for  private  enterprise, 
mind  you.  But  it  is  for  the  government.  For  you  see  the  Post  Office 
starts  with  a  revenue  of  $3,000  per  ton  on  some  of  its  loads.  Thirty 
pounds  of  first-class  mail  at  three  cents  an  ounce  or  fraction  give  me 


46  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

$45  a  day  for  maintenance  of  the  trucks.  All  else  I  haul,  all  the 
parcel  post  freight,  is  velvet.  That  is  why  I  am  in  a  position  to  report 
$90,000  made  on  a  single  truck  route  last  year." 

Motor-Truck  Freight  Lines 

We  advocate  that  private  capital  be  interested  in  truck  routes  by 
showing  manufacturers,  merchants,  and  farmers  the  advantages  and 
financial  returns  of  such  a  business.  This  can  be  done  through  the 
newspapers  and  in  special  issues  of  the  University  News  Letter, 
also  by  Chambers  of  Commerce. 

Mr.  J.  B.  Douglass  has  the  following  to  say  on  this  subject: 

It  can  be  said  that  the  inability  of  the  railroads  to  handle  the  traf- 
fic and  the  pressing  demands  of  war  gave  a  stimulus  to  the  use  of 
trucks  that  is  amazing.  In  1908  one  leading  motor  car  company 
built  only  13  motor  trucks.  There  was  no  demand.  That  same  com- 
pany turned  out  8,000  trucks  last  year. 

The  variety  of  uses  and  the  superiority  of  the  motor  truck  in  cer- 
tain fields  is  causing  other  transportation  systems  to  suffer  in  com- 
parison. To  be  more  definite,  the  freight  service  for  the  "short  haul" 
cannot  compete  with  the  truck  as  may  be  seen  in  the  following  ex- 
amples: 

Often  the  freight  rate  may  seem  lower,  but  to  it  must  be  added 
charges  for  cartage.  In  general,  freight  rates  plus  cartage  equal 
motor  truck  rates.  That  is,  motor  trucks  generally  give  express 
service  at  the  usual  freight  rates. 

Another  advantage  is  that  the  motor  truck  eliminates  at  least  five 
handlings  of  goods  as  shipped  by  railroads: 

1.  From  factory  or  warehouse  to  freight  station. 

2.  Loading  from  freight  station  or  truck  to  cars. 

3.  Unloading  at  destination  from  cars  to  trucks  or  freight  station. 

4.  Unloading  from  trucks  to  stores,  factories,  or  warehouses. 

5.  Handling,  in   case  the  goods  are   removed   from   car  to   freight 
station  and  held  until  consignee  sends  a  motor  truck  to  remove  them. 

In  March,  1918,  the  Post  Office  Department  made  an  interesting 
experiment.  At  6  a.  m.  there  were  loaded  on  a  motor  truck  at 
Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  18,000  eggs  in  crates  and  1,000  little  chicks 
a  day  old.  The  truck  started  for  New  York,  180  miles  away. 

At  the  same  time  exactly  the  same  kind  of  shipment  was  made  to 
the  same  consignee  by  train.  The  motor  truck  took  12  hours;  four 
chicks  were  dead  and  nine  eggs  broken.  The  train  took  four  days. 
Another  day  was  consumed  in  sending  notice  to  the  consignee,  who 
then  had  to  send  his  own  truck.  And  on  arrival  it  was  found  that 
1,000  eggs  had  been  broken  and  half  the  chicks  were  dead. 


CAROLINA  CLTJB,  U.  OF  1ST.  C.  47 

The  response  of  business  men  came  like  magic.  Motor-trucking  or 
express  companies  equipped  to  haul  freight  and  express  over  routes 
from  20  to  600  miles  long  sprang  up  on  every  hand.  In  the  Cleveland- 
Akron  section  the  local  freight  and  express  hauled  by  truck  is  now 
65  percent  as  much  as  that  going  by  rail.  One  40-mile  route  from 
Akron  to  Cleveland  relieves  the  railroads  of  the  demand  for  800  freight 
cars  a  week.  Even  if  the  average  throughout  the  year  were  only  60 
daily,  this  would  mean  30,000  cars  a  year  saved  for  other  uses. 

The  motor  truck  is  an  economy  also  from  the  standpoint  of  doing 
certain  kinds  of  service  that  cannot  be  performed  by  the  railroads, 
and  in  speeding  up  traffic. 

What  the  trucks  in  inter-city  service  can  do  for  the  farm  and  thus 
for  the  food  supply  and  the  man-power  of  the  nation,  has  been  worked 
out  by  the  Highways  Transport  Committee.  Usually,  going  to  market 
means  a  man  and  a  team  taken  from  the  fields  for  at  least  one  day — 
more  likely  two  days.  Where  there  is  a  scheduled  motor  express 
service,  the  farmer  can  keep  his  men,  teams,  and  equipment  right  on 
the  regular  job. 

One  Maryland  farmer  spares  a  negro  boy  from  chores  long  enough 
to  go  a  quarter  mile  down  to  the  main  road,  hang  a  three-gallon  can 
of  cream  on  a  forked  stake,  and  get  back.  The  motor  express  picks  it 
up,  carries  it  into  the  city,  and  the  farmer's  receipts  on  this  little 
transaction  are  $27.30  a  week. 

In  railroad  transport  better  packing  is  necessary,  and  additional 
expense  has  to  be  incurred  for  boxing,  crating,  or  protecting  by  other 
means  in  order  to  prevent  loss  or  damage.  A  general  traffic  manager 
holds  that  one  of  the  principal  savings  consequent  on  the  use  of  the 
motor  truck  was  in  lumber  and  other  material,  and  the  great  amount 
of  labor  required  for  boxing. 

The  saving  in  time  has  been  pointed  out.  There  is  often,  as  a  re- 
sult of  that,  a  saving  in  actual  money,  because  the  receiver  of  freight 
usually  considers  invoices  due  when  delivery  is  made.  If  the  terms  of 
sale  are  2  percent  10  days,  or  net  30  days,  the  receiver  takes  10  days 
or  30  days  from  the  date  of  receipt  of  freight.  If  goods  are  in  transit 
30  days  the  shipper  is  actually  selling  them  on  60  days'  credit  instead 
of  30.  If  the  difference  in  time  of  delivery  between  railway  and  motor 
truck  averages  10  days  in  the  short-haul  field,  then  there  is  an  actual 
saving  or  gain  in  interest  on  the  sale  price  of  goods,  when  the  shipper 
uses  the  motor  truck. 

The  economy  of  trucks  has  been  recognized  in  the  South,  also.  The 
Louisiana  mule  has  abdicated.  The  picturesque  but  slow  and  expen- 
sive four-mule  cotton  float,  a  type  specially  designed  for  the  cotton 
business  of  New  Orleans,  is  giving  way  to  a  semi-trailer  composed  of 
short-wheelbase,  two-ton  trucks. 


48  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

In  the  far  West,  too,  trucks  are  forcing  their  way  into  the  forests, 
and  with  the  aid  of  trailers  are  bearing  out  the  logs  to  the  mills. 
Timbermen  report  as  high  as  50  percent  saving  over  any  other  method 
of  logging.  This  was  an  unsuspected  use  for  trucks.  Its  discovery 
has  been  a  great  help  to  the  wood  and  pulp  industry. 

How  the  truck  solves  express  and  labor  problems  is  shown  in  the 
following: 

While  an  expressage  embargo  was  on  in  Detroit  last  May  all  in- 
bound express  was  embargoed.  The  question  as  to  what  should  be 
done  was  serious.  It  was  answered  by  the  motor  truck.  Detroit  manu- 
facturers wired  shippers  to  divert  consignments  and  express  them 
to  Toledo  and  Cleveland.  Motor  express  companies  at  those  points 
received  them  and  brought  them  to  Detroit  on  trucks  where  they  were 
accepted  because  not  technically  express.  All  of  this  business  was 
handled  during  the  night  and  delivered  at  receiving  rooms  in  Detroit 
by  8  A.  M.  Similar  diverting  of  shipments  is  often  done  now  to 
avoid  freight-terminal  delays  at  large  centers. 

During  recent  stringent  labor  conditions  a  large  eastern  manu- 
facturer of  corsets  used  his  trucks  to  solve  a  serious  problem.  The 
town  in  which  his  factory  was  located  was  .a  munition  center.  When 
labor  costs  became  prohibitive  he  opened  plants  in  the  three  neigh- 
boring towns  at  distances  of  23,  30,  and  40  miles.  Labor  was  obtained 
in  these  communities  at  much  more  reasonable  rates.  Raw  materials 
were  transported  from  the  one  factory  warehouse  to  these  new  plants 
by  trucks.  The  return  load  was  made  up  of  finished  or  partly  finished 
goods. 

The  promptness  and  low  cost  of  haulage  between  these  four  plants 
enabled  him  to  continue  business  profitably  in  the  face  of  the  serious 
labor  shortage. 

These  two  instances,  and  innumerable  others  which  might  be  cited, 
show  three  superiorities^  of  motor  truck  transport  over  all  other  means 
— the  flexibility  of  the  service,  the  speed,  and  the  directness  of  the 
deliveries.  They  move  goods  much  faster  than  the  railroads  do,  actual 
delivery  considered,  and  they  haul  the  goods,  not  to  some  terminal, 
but  to  the  consignee's  receiving-room  door. 

All  of  this  emphasizes  in  a  general  way  the  conditions  that  have 
obtained  in  railway  transportation,  and  explains  why  industrial  and 
commercial  interests  are  turning  more  and  more  from  what  had  been 
considered  short  hauls  to  the  use  of  motor  trucks  for  transportation. 
Business  men  first  turned  to  motor-truck  service  to  meet  an  emer- 
gency; now  they  are  turning  to  it  to  insure  against  interruptions  and 
delay  in  carrying  on  their  operations. 

Department  stores  in  New  York  City  and  Philadelphia  are  exten- 
sively patronizing  long-distance  motor  truck  freight  service.  This 
method  of  transportation  insures  prompt  receipt  of  goods. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  "N.  C.  49 

The  products  carried  by  motor  trucks  have  hardly  any  limitations. 
Recently  several  tons  of  finished  leather,  valued  at  $40,000,  were 
shipped  by  motor  truck  from  Philadelphia  to  New  York  overnight. 
Railway  service  at  the  same  time  would  have  required  from  four  to 
seven  days. 

A  look  into  the  future  of  motor  truck  service  reveals  possibilities 
that  have  no  limit. 

Government  Ownership  of  Electric  Railways 

We  advocate  municipal  or  governmental  ownership  of  all  electrical 
railways. 

Let  us  first  see  the  condition  of  electric  railways  at  the  present 
time. 

Here  are  a  few  excerpts  from  testimony  given  before  the  Federal 
Electric  Railway  Commission  appointed  by  President  Wilson  to  inquire 
into  all  phases  of  the  electric  railway  situation. 

Mr.  J.  W.  Welsh  put  into  evidence  charts  and  tables  revealing  that 
345  electric  railway  companies  suffered  a  diminution  of  74  percent 
in  net  income  during  the  year  1918  as  compared  with  1917.  This 
diminution  was  largely  due  to  increased  operating  expenses,  including 
labor  costs  and  increased  taxes.  The  companies  on  which  the  com- 
parison was  based,  he  explained,  represent  more  than  80  percent  of 
the  gross  earnings  of  all  electric  railways  in  the  United  States. 

The  statistician  also  furnished  figures  showing  an  appreciable  re- 
tardation in  the  growth  of  electric  railways  in  recent  years,  these 
figures  also  being  based  on  reports  of  the  345  companies  reporting 
greatly  reduced  revenues. 

Decrease  of  revenues,  he  said,  had  been  accompanied  by  lower  divi- 
dends, or  no  dividends  at  all,  while  a  surplus  of  $16,000,000  in  1917 
had  shrunk  within  a  year  to  half  the  amount.  The  average  dividend 
return,  Mr.  Welsh  testified,  is  now  only  about  3  percent,  a  return 
entirely  unattractive  to  investors  and  indicating  a  critical  situation 
in  the  electric  railway  field. 

One  of  the  tables  demonstrated  that  on  May  31,  1919,  62  companies 
with  a  mileage  of  5,912  miles  of  single  track  were  in  the  hands  of 
receivers;  that  60  companies  with  a  mileage  of  763  had  been  dis- 
mantled and  junked,  and  38  companies  having  257  miles  of  single 
track  had  been  abandoned. 

J.  E.  Hedges,  receiver  for  the  New  York  Railways  Company,  says: 
The  street  railways  today  are  operating  at  a  loss,  and  unless  there  is 
a  change  they  are  going  out.  They  will  cease  to  be  a  part  of  com- 
munity life  entirely. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  electric  railways  instead  of  being  advanced 
and  improved  now  need  to  be  relieved  and  put  on  the  stronger  basis 
of  government  ownership. 

4 


50  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Capital  cannot  be  expected  to  build  railways  where  they  are  not 
reasonably  sure  of  a  certain  percentage  of  profit,  regardless  of  the 
benefit  to  the  community.  There  is  only  one  way  left,  municipal  or 
governmental  ownership.  This  will  work  on  a  scale  that  will  not 
necessarily  demand  a  profit.  Lines  can  be  built  wherever  they  will 
benefit  the  community  and  the  farming  districts.  Interurban  electric 
railways  will  develop  our  country  districts.  They  will  make  urban 
property  more  attractive,  and  relieve  congestion  in  the  cities.  They 
will  bring  producers  and  consumers  into  closer  relation  with  one  an- 
other. 

Interurban  lines,  municipally  owned,  are  being  used  in  several 
cities  of  the  North  and  West,  and  with  success.  One  city  has  pur- 
chased its  electric  railways  and  besides  running  lines  into  unprofitable 
territory  has  made  more  than  3  percent  on  its  investment. 

Higher  rates  would  relieve  the  situation  temporarily,  but  not  per- 
manently, and  the  only  way  to  keep  electric  railways  alive  with 
benefit  to  the  community  and  society  is  to  put  them  in  the  hands  of 
the  municipality  or  the  government. — I.  M.  Abelkop,  Chairman  Sub- 
Committee  on  Motor  Truck  Freight  Service,  The  Country  Parcels 
Post,  and  Interurban  Electric  Railways. 

December  8,  1919. 


RAILWAYS,  INLAND  WATERWAYS,  AND  PORT  FACILITIES 

PHILLIP  HETTLEMAN,  GOLDSBORO,  N.  C. 

Scope  of  the  Report 

This  report  concerns  itself  with  a  brief  discussion  of  conditions 
and  methods  of  improving  the  railroads,  inland  waterways,  and  port 
facilities  of  North  Carolina.  We  suggest  no  legislation,  but  we  do 
urge  that  various  organizations  become  alive  to  their  vital  interest 
and  adopt  measures  that  will  not  only  promote  their  own  welfare,  but 
also  advance  the  best  interests  of  the  state. 

Program  Proposals 

1.  Cities  should  employ  a  competent  traffic  manager. 

2.  Manufacturing  concerns  should  pool  their  interests  and  employ 
rate  experts.     Small  merchants  might  well  follow  the  same  policy. 

3.  Chambers  of  Commerce  should  give  major  attention  to  the  im- 
provement of  railroad  facilities  and  to  plans  for  the  relief  of  yard 
congestion. 

4.  A  comprehensive  program  for  the  development  and  improvement 
of  inland  waterways  and  port  facilities. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  51 

Explanations 

1.  A  traffic  manager  should  be  able  to  give  information  as  to  the  time 
required  to  obtain  different  supplies  from  certain  designated  places, 
the  best  routes  for  shipments,  the  relative  freight  rates  from  rival 
supplying  points,  and  the  possibilities  for  securing  commodity  rates. 

After  the  passage  of  the  Elkins  law  in  1903,  no  secret  rates  with 
carriers  were  possible.  But  it  is  possible  to  petition  classification 
committees  for  a  change  in  the  class  of  certain  articles,  and  when  we 
realize  that  75  percent  of  our  rates  are  commodity  rates,  we  get  a 
glimpse  of  the  many  benefits  a  traffic  manager  can  confer. 

Very  few  merchants  know  how  to  bill  mixed  carload  shipments 
properly,  and  consequently  the  railroads  charge  the  highest  possible 
rate  on  the  description  furnished.  In  this  function  alone  the  traffic 
manager  can  save  the  city  many  times  his  salary. 

2.  The   present   freight   rate   controversy   in   North   Carolina   shows 
the  vital  need  for  rate  experts  in  this  state.    For  years  the  state  has 
appealed  to  various  commissions  for  a  change  in  rates,  but  the  project 
has  always  failed,  because  their   exhibits  have  been  inadequate  and 
real  experts  have  not  coped  with  the  situation.     Just  one  revision  of 
a  single  freight  rate  could  save  the  manufacturers  in  this  state  thou- 
sands of  dollars,  and,  since  a  rate  expert  must  be  a  highly  paid  official, 
we  suggest  that  different  manufacturers  pool  their  interests  in  securing 
rate  experts.     Small  merchants  grouping  themselves  into  clubs  of  100 
each  would  find  the  hiring  of  a  rate  expert  very  beneficial. 

3.  North  Carolina  is  developing  in  many  ways  and  notably  in  our 
live   stock   industry.     This   means  that  the   railroads   should   furnish 
more  and  better  facilities  for  live-stock  shipments  in  the  state,  and 
in  this  matter  the  chambers  of  commerce  have  before  them  a  great 
field  of  service  and  usefulness.    Congested  freight  traffic  in  local  yards 
is   properly  a   detail   for   chambers   of   commerce  to   consider.     It   is 
interesting  to  note  that  Durham's  Chamber  of  Commerce  is  now  draw- 
ing up  plans  for  the  handling  of  congested  freight  traffic  in  the  local 
yard.     Improved  switching  conditions,  better  terminal  facilities,  and 
more   comforts   for   travelers    in    railway   stations   are   vital   subjects 
which  will  relieve  existing  troubles  in  many  of  our  cities. 

4.  Very   little   has  been   done   in  this   state  toward   improving   our 
navigable  rivers  except  a  few  attempts  by  the  Engineering  Corps  of 
the  United  States  Army  on  the  Cape  Fear,  Neuse,  Pamlico,  and  Chowan 
rivers.    These  rivers  and  their  tributaries  reach  some  of  the  most  pro- 
ductive parts  of  the  state,  and  some  of  these  areas  do  not  have  adequate 
railway  facilities.     A  regular   system   of  water  transportation  would 
mean  nearness  to  markets,  higher  prices  for  products,  conservation  of 
coal,  and  greater  development  of  water  power  for  commercial  purposes. 


52  STATE  ^RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Dr.  Thorndike  Saville,  in  a  letter  to  this  committee,  suggests  that 
a  canal  from  the  Cape  Fear  river  to  the  Yadkin  and  a  partial  canaliza- 
tion of  the  latter  would  bring  large  areas  of  the  most  productive 
regions  of  our  state  into  cheap  communication  with  the  port  of  Wil- 
mington. He  also  sees  no  reason  why  Raleigh  should  not  be  an  inland 
port  for  coastwise  steamers  coming  up  the  Neuse  river.  The  experi- 
ence of  Manchester  and  Leeds  in  England  is  cited  in  this  connection. 

Through  the  efforts  of  The  South  Atlantic  Maritime  Corporation, 
Wilmington  and  four  other  southern  ports  have  been  granted  the  use 
of  government-owned  ships  for  Latin-American  trade.  Railway  rates 
have  been  so  changed  that  Wilmington  can  receive  freight  for  export 
shipment  at  the  same  rate  as  other  eastern  ports.  But  if  Wilmington 
is  to  become  one  of  the  leading  ports  on  the  South  Atlantic  Coast, 
immediate  steps  must  be  taken  to  deepen  the  harbor  and  to  provide 
adequate  docking  facilities  and  suitable  unloading  equipment. — Phillip 
Hettleman,  Chairman  Sub-Committee  on  Railways,  Inland  Waterways, 
and  Port  Facilities. 

December  8,  1919. 


COUNTRY  TELEPHONE  SYSTEMS 

B.  E.  WEATHEBS,  SHELBY,  N.  C. 

Scope  of  Report 

The  telephone  has  made  wonderful  progress  the  world  around  within 
recent  years.  The  number  of  users  in  the  United  States  is  both  ac- 
tually and  proportionately  larger  than  in  any  other  country.  For 
every  thousand  Europeans  it  is  estimated  that  there  is  one  telephone; 
while  for  every  thousand  Americans  there  are  fifteen  telephones.  In 
Chicago,  for  example,  there  are  more  telephones  than  in  all  France. 

According  to  the  North  Carolina  Club  Year-Book,  1915-1916,  there 
were  718  telephone  systems,  109,000  miles  of  wire,  and  65,000  tele- 
phones in  the  state  in  1912.  It  is  estimated  that  650  of  these  were 
country  telephone  systems,  owned  and  operated  privately  by  groups 
of  farmers.  They  had  in  use  around  35,000  miles  of  wire,  and  some 
20,000  telephones.  The  latest  statistics  which  the  Census  Bureau  has 
just  released  are  not  yet  available,  but  this  new  report  will  most 
likely  show  a  great  increase  in  country  telephones  in  North  Carolina. 

The  strides  our  home-owning  farmers  have  made  are  indeed  gratify- 
ing, but  we  must  not  overlook  the  fact  that  it  is  not  the  average  but 
the  exceptional  farm  household  that  has  undergone  constructive,  de- 
sirable, and  advantageous  changes  within  recent  years.  The  majority 
of  farm  homes  throughout  the  state,  viewed  from  the  angle  of  home 
comforts  and  conveniences,  are  almost  as  crude  and  unfurnished  as 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  53 

those  of  our  frontier  ancestors.  There  are  275,000  farm  homes  in 
North  Carolina,  and  there  certainly  ought  to  be  at  least  150,000  tele- 
phones— or,  a  telephone  in  each  country  home  occupied  by  an  owner. 

Gov.  Bickett  is  to  be  commended  for  his  activities  in  behalf  of 
country-life  improvement  in  North  Carolina.  His  whole  administration 
was  characterized  by  a  keen  desire  to  lift  the  farming  class  of  North 
Carolina  into  increased  activity  and  enhanced  value  in  the  life  of  the 
state.  Largely  through  his  recommendations  the  General  Assembly 
of  1917  passed  an  act  authorizing  the  State  Highway  Commission 
"to  advise  and  assist  in  providing  a  water  supply  and  electric  power 
and  electric  lights  for  rural  communities  and  individuals  outside  of 
incorporated  towns,  by  investigating  natural  powers  and  preparing 
plans  for  their  development,  and  the  installation  of  such  apparatus  as 
may  be  needed  to  utilize  such  water  power  in  developing  electric  power 
and  for  supplying  a  water  system  and  electric  light  system,  and  to 
furnish  plans  and  specifications  for  the  installation  of  rural  mutual 
telephone  systems." 

The  provision,  therefore,  so  far  as  it  affects  country  telephones, 
has  to  do  primarily  with  the  formation  of  rural  telephone  companies 
purely  from  an  engineering  point  of  view.  The  State  Highway  Com- 
mission enlisted  the  services  of  the  Engineering  Departments  of  the 
State  University,  and  their  work  at  present  is  limited  to  practical 
suggestions  as  regards  installation,  assistance  in  selecting  proper 
apparatus,  etc. 

Little  need  be  said  of  the  desirability  and  advantage  of  having  a 
telephone  in  the  country  home.  The  time  has  passed  when  people 
considered  it  a  mere  luxury — it  is  now  becoming  more  and  more  a 
necessity.  The  question  is,  what  is  the  best  method  of  providing  the 
most  effective  telephone  service? 

Program  Proposals 

We  make  one  definite  proposal  in  addition  to  the  plans  already 
formulated  by  the  Bureau  of  Country  Home  Conveniences  at  the 
University,  namely,  that  an  additional  sum  be  added  to  the  present 
appropriation  of  $5,000  in  order  to  establish  an  adequate  supervising 
and  auditing  service  free  of  charge  to  country  communities  having 
mutual  telephone  systems. 

This  proposal  appears  to  be  logical,  and  in  harmony  with  the  work 
that  is  now  being  carried  on  by  the  University  Engineering  Depart- 
ment. This  department,  under  the  present  plan,  is  specifically  con- 
cerned with  the  problems  that  arise  in  connection  with  construction, 
and  is  limited  in  scope  to  the  giving  of  expert  technical  advice  in 
engineering  matters.  We  propose  that  an  additional  sum  be  added 
to  the  present  appropriation  in  order  to  carry  the  matter  a  step  fur- 
ther and  to  provide  for  the  establishment  of  an  adequate  inspecting, 


54  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

supervising,  and  auditing  service.  It  is  important  from  the  stand- 
point of  efficient  management.  By  the  term  audit  we  do  not  refer 
merely  to  the  detection  of  possible  mismanagement  in  the  various 
systems,  but  we  use  it  in  the  larger  and  more  acceptable  sense  of 
pointing  out  poor  financial  methods  and  proper  financial  changes.  This 
particular  service  is  needed  in  order  to  guarantee  efficiency  in  pur- 
chasing, collecting,  account-keeping,  reporting,  etc. 

Not  only  are  proper  construction  and  proper  management  essential 
to  the  successful  operation  of  country  telephones,  but  a  third  impor- 
tant factor  is  proper  maintenance.  Many  country  systems  are  poorly 
constructed  and  do  not  receive  timely  necessary  repairs;  consequently 
service  is  frequently  interrupted  or  completely  stopped  for  long 
periods  of  time.  A  good  deal  of  carelessness  on  the  part  of  local  tele- 
phone managers  in  respect  to  upkeep  of  equipment,  repairs,  extensions, 
etc.,  is  observable  in  country  districts. 

As  a  solution,  we  propose  a  special  inspecting  service  which  will 
include  expert  supervision  in  all  these  matters  pertaining  to  the 
maintenance  of  effective  telephone  service. 

With  such  free  expert  service  as  we  propose,  country  systems  might 
be  just  ae  successful  and  satisfactory  as  the  service  of  the  great 
commercial  telephone  companies  of  the  United  States.  Mutual  tele- 
phone systems  in  rural  areas,  if  properly  installed,  advised  and  guided, 
might  give  maximum  service  at  minimum  rates.  Independent  rural 
telephone  systems  may  be  privately  owned,  mutually  owned  by  its 
users,  or  operated  by  a  cooperative  stock  system  on  the  customer- 
dividend,  profit-sharing  basis. 

By  either  of  these  methods,  as  shown  by  actual  experience,  rural 
telephone  systems  can  be  successfully  established,  and  operated  by 
farmers,  on  a  minimum  cost  basis  with  maximum  benefits. — B.  E. 
Weathers,  Chairman  Sub-Committee  on  Rural  Telephones. 

December  8,  1919. 


TRANSPORTATION  AND  COMMUNICATION  STUDIES 

Outline 

1.  State  highway  policies. 

2.  Motor  truck  freight  lines,  country  parcel  post  routes,  and  inter- 
urban  electric  railways. 

3.  Our  railroad  situation  and  its  disadvantages;    freight  rate  prob- 
lems and  solutions;  inland  waterways,  and  port  facilities. 

4.  Country  telephone  systems;  number  and  locations  in  North  Caro- 
lina; University  aid  in  country  telephone  development. 


CAEOLINA  CLTJB,  U.  OF  "N.  C.  55 

Bibliography 

Reading  references  for  the  Reconstruction  Committee  on  Transpor- 
tation and  Communication,  numbered  to  correspond  with  the  sug- 
gested field  of  committee  investigations. 

1.  State  Highway  Policies. 

State-wide  Road  Laws,  Public  Laws  of  North  Carolina,  Session  1919, 
Circular  No.  4,  North  Carolina  State  Highway  Commission — Frank 
Page,  Highway  Commissioner,  Raleigh,  N.  C.  16  pp. 

Approved  Highway  Projects  in  North  Carolina  for  1920 — Raleigh 
News  and  Observer,  December  20,  1919. 

Millions  to  State  in  Road  Equipment,  Press  Item,  October  6,  1919 — 
File  No.  386.1. 

May  Provide  Way  for  Federal  Aid,  Press  Item,  January  27,  1919 — 
File  No.  386.1. 

Public  Road  Mileage  and  Revenues  in  1918  in  the  United  States, 
Public  Roads  Magazine,  July,  1919 — Federal  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture. 

Federal  Aid  to  the  State  for  the  Next  Eighteen  Months  Exceeds 
Three  Million.  Press  Item,  March  16,  1919— File  No.  386.1. 

Hard  Surface  Highways — James  H.  Pou,  a  press  clipping.  Uni- 
versity Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  386.1. 

Bulletins  North  Carolina  Good  Roads  Association — Miss  H.  M.  Berry, 
Secretary,  Chapel  Hill,  N.  C. 

Outline  Address.    John  Sprunt  Hill,  Durham,  N.  C. 

Public  Highway  Law,  1921  Session  N.  C.  Legislature. 

State  Highway  Law,  map  of  districts,  etc.,  Session  1921.  Greens- 
boro Daily  News,  March  7,  1921. 

2.  Motor  Truck  Freight  Lines,  etc, 

Motor  Car  Laws  as  Now  Written,  October  1,  1917,  by  the  A.  A.  A. 
Touring  Board— Riggs  Building,  Washington,  D.  C.  16  pp. 

A  State  Endorses  the  Rural  Motor  Express — National  Automobile 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  Inc.,  7  East  Forty-second  Street,  New  York. 
8  pp. 

Million  Dollar  Truck  Express.  Press  Item — University  Rural  Social 
Science  Files,  No.  386.11. 

Operating  a  Cooperative  Motor  Truck— Farmers'  Bulletin  No.  1032. 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture.  24  pp. 

Motor  Transportation  for  Rural  Districts — J.  H.  Collins.  Farmers' 
Bulletin  No.  770.  IMd.,  32  pp. 

Motor  Transport  Future — Sir  Eric  Geddes.  Press  Item — University 
Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  386.11. 

Truck  Beats  Express  for  Textile  Concern.  Press  Clipping— Univer- 
sity Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  386.11. 


56  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

The  Service  of  Supply — Hon.  M.  Clyde  Kelley.  Government  Docu- 
ment, Washington,  D.  C.  14  pp. 

Trucks  Efficient  for  Short  Hauls.  Bulletin  National  Bank  of  Com- 
merce, N.  Y.  Reviewed  N.  Y.  Times,  December  19,  1920. 

Post  Office  Marketing — University  News  Letter,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  24. 

Parcels  Post  and  the  Country  School — University  News  Letter,  Vol. 
V,  No.  2. 

Parcel  Post  Business  Methods — C.  C.  Hawbaker  and  John  W.  Law, 
Farmers'  Bulletin  922.  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture. 
20  pp. 

Suggestions  for  Parcel  Post  Marketing — Lewis  B.  Flohr  and  C.  T. 
More.  Farmers'  Bulletin  703.  United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture. 19  pp. 

The  New  S.  O.  S.,  by  H.  S.  Stabler — The  Country  Gentleman,  Dec.  8, 
1919. 

Electric  Railways  in  the  United  States,  report  of  the  Federal  Census 
Bureau  for  the  year  1917. 

Electric  Railway  Problems — Extracts  of  testimony  before  Federal 
Electric  Railway  Commission  in  1919.  31  pp. 

Geographic  Control  of  Transportation  in  the  Southeast — John  E. 
Smith.  Journal  of  Geography,  Madison,  Wis.,  May,  1914.  6  pp. 

3.  Railway  Development,  Freight  Bate  Problems,  etc. 

Railway  Statistics  of  the  United  States  for  the  year  ending  1916 — 
Prepared  by  Slason  Thompson,  Bureau  of  Railway  News  and  Statis- 
tics. Stromberg,  Allen  &  Company,  Chicago,  1917.  148  pp. 

Transportation — Issued  by  the  Texas  Commercial  Secretaries  and 
Business  Men's  Association,  Fort  Worth,  Texas.  32  pp. 

Intrastate  Rates,  and  Freight  Discriminations  in  North  Carolina, 
newspaper  clippings — University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  385.1. 

Readjustment  of  Export  Rates  on  Southern  Freight.  Press  item — 
University  Rural  Social  Science  File  No.  387. 

» 

4.  Country  Telephones. 

Telephones  of  the  United  States,  Report  (April,  1919)  by  the  United 
States  Census  Bureau,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Country  Home  Comforts  and  Conveniences — Extension  Bureau  of 
the  University  of  North  Carolina  Leaflets,  No.  1,  Part  1. 

Country  Home  Comforts — University  News  Letter,  Vol.  V,  Nos.  37, 
41,  46,  47,  48,  49. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  K.  C.  57 

Transportation  Committee 

1.  Railway  Transportation,  Inland  Waterways,  and  Port  Facilities: 
P.  Hettleman,  Chairman,  Wayne  County,  Goldsboro. 

2.  State  Highway  Policies:     S.  O.   Worthington,   Pitt  County,  Win- 
terville. 

3.  Country  Telephone  Systems:     B.  E.  Weathers,  Cleveland  County, 
Shelby. 

4.  Motor  Truck  Freight  and  the  Country  Parcels  Post:    I.  M.  Abel- 
kop,  Durham  County,  Durham. 


58  STATE  RECONSTKUCTION  STUDIES 


CHAPTER  VI 

HOME  AND  FARM  OWNERSHIP— THE  FACTS  AND  THEIR 
SIGNIFICANCE. 

W.  R.  KIBKMAN,  GREENSBORO,  N.  C. 

By  exhaustive  inquiry  it  has  been  ascertained  that  in  1910  the  mul- 
titude of  landless,  homeless  people  in  the  United  States  numbered 
fifty-five  million  souls,  town  and  country,  or  nearly  three-fifths  of  our 
entire  population.  Of  this  number  eleven  and  one-half  million  are 
tenant  farmers.  The  other  forty-four  million  are  breadwinners  in 
other  occupations,  (1)  living  in  the  villages,  towns,  and  cities  of  the 
United  States,  earning  wages  in  stores  and  offices,  mills  and  factories, 
and  (2)  salaried  people  in  positions  of  all  sorts. 

The  more  populous  and  prosperous  a  community  or  country  becomes 
the  fewer  are  the  people  who  own  the  farms  they  till  or  the  homes 
they  live  in,  and  the  larger  the  multitude  of  tenants  and  renters.  It 
is  Christendom's  cruelest  paradox. 

In  North  Carolina,  in  1910,  fifty-two  percent  of  all  our  dwellings  in 
town  and  country  regions  were  occupied  by  tenants  and  renters.  This 
means  that  eleven  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  of  our  people  of  both 
races  in  North  Carolina  are  landless  and  homeless. 

Where  city  populations  are  most  concentrated  in  North  Carolina 
the  ratios  of  home  ownership  are  low.  In  Asheville,  Charlotte,  and 
Wilmington  two-thirds  of  the  people  live  in  rented  dwellings.  In 
Raleigh  70  percent,  in  Durham  71  percent,  and  in  Winston  72  per- 
cent of  the  population  live  in  rented  dwellings.  Greensboro  makes 
the  best  showing  of  any  town  in  the  state,  yet  in  Greensboro  62  per- 
cent of  her  people  live  in  houses  they  do  not  own. 

Twenty-eight  states  make  a  better  showing  than  North  Carolina  in 
the  ownership  of  homes  and  farms,  and  seventeen  a  poorer  showing. 
These  seventeen  states  are  in  the  industrial  centers  of  the  North  and 
East  and  in  the  cotton  belt  sections  to  the  south  of  us,  where  farm 
tenancy  is  excessive. 

Our  white  farm  tenants  outnumber  our  negro  tenants  three  to  two, 
or  63,000  to  44,000.  With  their  families  the  white  tenant  farmers  of 
the  state  make  a  landless,  homeless  population  of  315,000  souls.  They 
outnumber  the  negro  tenants  and  their  families  by  nearly  a  hundred 
thousand,  which  means  that  farm  tenancy  in  North  Carolina  is  mainly 
a  white  man's  problem.  The  white  tenants  are  superior  in  social 
position  to  be  sure,  a  distinction  which  only  quickens  their  sense  of 
discomfort  and  discouragement.  Farm  tenants  of  both  races  have 
poorer  food  and  less  to  wear,  more  miserable  houses  and  less  certainty 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  59 

of  yearly  income,  than  any  other  class  of  people  in  North  Carolina. 
The  tenant  is  the  state's  agricultural  vandal.  For  years  he  has  been 
robbing  the  soil  of  its  fertility.  He  moves  from  one  farm  to  another, 
leaving  in  his  wake  impoverished  land,  abandoned  farms,  and  a  train 
of  economic  evils  that  soon  must  be  remedied  or  grave  economic  con- 
sequences will  follow  in  our  farm  regions. 

The  effect  of  tenancy  on  social  conditions  is  bad.  Farm  tenants  have 
no  stake  in  the  land  and  are  tethered  to  no  locality  by  the  ties  of 
ownership.  They  are  forever  moving  from  farm  to  farm  and  cannot 
be  identified  with  any  community.  Upon  an  average  one-half  of  the 
farm  tenants  of  the  South  move  every  year.  This  state  of  affairs 
makes  it  impossible  for  them  to  develop  an  abiding  interest  in  schools 
and  churches,  in  good  roads,  and  in  local  law  and  order.  As  a  result, 
wherever  we  find  excessive  tenancy  we  find  undue  illiteracy.  The 
children  of  tenant  farmers  change  teachers  and  schools  so  often  that 
they  soon  become  discouraged  and  drop  out.  Tenancy  breeds  illiteracy 
and  illiteracy  breeds  tenancy.  They  go  hand  in  hand,  and  neither 
can  be  cured  without  the  other. 

Another  noticeable  effect  is  the  effect  of  tenancy  on  white  church 
membership.  Where  there  is  a  high  ratio  of  white  tenancy  there  is 
always  a  low  ratio  of  church  membership  in  white  country  churches. 
In  twenty-one  of  our  cotton  and  tobacco  counties  we  find  excessive 
tenancy  and  illiteracy,  and  in  these  twenty-one  counties  are  massed 
more  than  a  fourth  of  the  non-church  members  of  the  entire  state. 

The  greatest  home  mission  task  of  the  church  today  is  to  set  itself 
to  destroy  tenancy  and  illiteracy,  or  tenancy  and  illiteracy  will  de- 
stroy the  church  in  our  country  regions.  A  landless,  homeless  popula- 
tion offers  a  perilous  foundation  for  stability,  sanity,  and  safety  in 
American  democracy.  Popular  intelligence  and  Christian  conscience 
must  get  busy  with  this  problem. 

The  most  comprehensive  study  of  this  important  subject  yet  in 
print  in  compact  form  appeared  in  The  University  of  North  Carolina 
News  Letter,  Vol.  I,  No.  46,  and  in  Vol.  Ill,  Nos.  36  and  39.  We  re- 
produce them  in  full. — W.  R.  Kirkman,  Chairman  Sub-Committee  on 
Our  Landless  Multitudes,  the  Facts  and  their  Significance. 

January  12,  1920. 


OUR  HOMELESS  MULTITUDES 

We  entered  this  war,  said  President  Wilson,  to  make  the  world  safe 
for  democracy.  The  supreme  task  for  teachers,  said  President  Graham, 
is  to  lead  in  making  democracy  safe  for  the  world;  to  be  a  prime 
force  in  creating  a  Democracy  that  is  worth  the  sacrifice. 

The  first  can  be  achieved,  let  us  hope,  in  the  next  year  or  so;  the 


60  STATE  KECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

second  is  humanity's  supreme  struggle  during  the  next  century  or  so—- 
in America  as  well  as  in  France,  England,  and  Russia. 

And  what  will  be  the  chance  for  sane,  safe  democracy  in  any  com- 
munity or  country,  state  or  nation  that  is  populated  by  landless, 
homeless  people;  who  in  the  very  nature  of  things  move  from  pillar 
to  post  under  the  urge  of  necessity  or  the  lure  of  opportunity,  who 
lack  identity  with  the  community  in  which  they  live,  who  feel  little 
responsibility  for  local  law  and  order,  who  lack  a  proprietary  interest 
in  schools  and  churches  and  other  agencies  of  progress  and  prosperity, 
welfare  and  well-being? 

It  is  well  nigh  impossible  to  socialize,  civilize,  or  Christianize  a 
landless,  homeless  people;  and  Mexico  perfectly  illustrates  this  funda- 
mental truth.  At  bottom,  her  people  are  illiterate,  irresponsible,  and 
impossible  because  the  masses  are  landless  and  homeless. 

On  the  other  hand,  Switzerland  and  Denmark  are  countries  whose 
economic  and  social  institutions  are  based  on  the  nearly  universal 
ownership  of  homes  and  farms.  And  both  countries  are  leading  the 
way  in  democratic  sanity  and  safety. 

Rome  fell  into  decay,  says  Pliny,  because  of  latifundia;  that  is,  land 
ownership  by  the  few  and  land  orphanage  for  the  many.  Nobody 
ever  realized  any  better  than  Moses  and  Isaiah  that  civilization  is 
rooted  and  grounded  in  the  home-owning,  home-loving,  home-defending 
instinct;  but  in  Hezekiah's  day  the  dwellings  in  the  fenced  cities  of 
Judah,  and  the  fields,  orchards,  and  vineyards  of  the  open  country 
were  owned  by  the  royal  family,  the  courtiers,  the  captains  of  war, 
the  traders  and  the  usurers.  Judah  was  a  land  of  tenants  and  renters, 
and  Judah  went  away  into  captivity.  This  story  of  national  decline 
has  been  repeated  under  every  sky  of  Heaven  from  that  day  to  this; 
and  the  time  has  come  to  consider  this  foundational  menace  to 
democracy  in  America  and  in  North  Carolina. 

Democracy  and  Homelessness 

Of  democratic  freedom  to  do  as  a  body  pleases  we  already  have 
enough  and  to  spare  in  North  Carolina  and  everywhere  else  in  the 
United  States.  Of  democratic  freedom  schooled  and  skilled  in  wise  and 
righteous  self-government  we  have  too  little  everywhere.  We  have 
not  yet  spelled  out  Plato's  paradox — the  necessity  of  freedom 
from  restraint  along  with  the  necessity  for  ready  obedience  to  the 
authority  of  right  reason.  Rights  and  duties  are  still  in  mortal 
combat  in  every  man  and  in  every  community  everywhere.  The  best 
and  the  beast  in  us  are  still  in  deadly  struggle.  The  Sons  of  Men 
and  the  Servants  of  Mammon  are  still  contesting  every  inch  of  the 
way  in  developing  democracy.  The  making  of  men  is  not  yet  a 
greater  thing  than  the  making  of  money.  The  world  is  still  filled  to 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  61 

the  brim  with  poverty  and  progress,  magnificence  and  misery  side  by 
side  in  every  community.  The  rights  of  property  are  still  greater 
in  the  minds  of  men  than  the  rights  of  humanity. 

We  have  not  yet  unraveled  the  riddle  of  industrial  security  on  the 
one  hand  and  economic  justice  on  the  other.  Our  civic  institutions 
are  democratic;  organized  big  business  is  feudal.  The  two  are  in 
opposition,  and  the  fundamental  problem  of  democracy  everywhere  is 
the  reconciliation  of  opposites — to  borrow  a  phrase  of  F'roebel. 

Profound  problems  of  democracy  confront  America,  as  well  as  Ger- 
many, England,  and  France,  as  President  Graham  says.  Witness  the 
prolonged  struggle  between  profits  and  patriotism  in  the  discussion 
of  every  measure  in  Congress  today.  Man  is  still  locked  in  deadly 
struggle  with  Mammon.  Our  democracy  is  not  perfect;  it  is  merely  on 
the  way  to  perfection,  and  the  way  is  long  and  difficult. 

The  matter  passed  under  brief  review  in  this  study  concerns  the 
relation  of  land  and  home  ownership  to  democratic  sanity  and  safety. 
How  well  or  how  ill  are  our  55,000,000  landless,  homeless  people  in 
these  United  States  conditioned  to  be  the  high  priests  of  right  reason 
in  economic,  social,  civic,  or  spiritual  affairs?  How  stable  or  unstable 
are  the  foundations  of  democracy,  when  laid  down  in  restless,  roving, 
irresponsible  citizenship?  What  is  the  worth  of  citizenship  that  is 
weighted  and  steadied  by  home  ownership  in  our  cities  and  land  owner- 
ship in  our  farm  regions? 

The  cities  have  always  been  hot-beds  of  destructive  socialism, 
and  so  mainly  because  vast  majorities  of  the  city  dwellers  own  neither 
the  houses  they  live  in  nor  the  tools  they  work  with.  Here  frenzied 
revolutionists  find  large  and  responsive  audiences;  and  but  for  the 
sanity  of  home  and  farm  owners  in  America  our  democracy  would 
long  ago  have  gone  down  like  a  house  of  cards. 

Macaulay  gave  us  a  hundred  years  in  which  to  reach  the  supreme 
crisis  in  our  history.  We  have  not  yet  reached  it,  but  inevitably  we 
are  moving  toward  it.  A  prudent  people  will  foresee  the  evil  and 
hide  themselves  in  the  ownership  of  homes  and  farms;  a  foolish 
people  will  pass  on  and  be  punished — now  as  in  Solomon's  day. 

An  efficient,  stable  democracy,  based  on  economic  justice  and  indus- 
trial security,  is  impossible  in  a  nation  of  landless,  homeless  people — 
or  so  it  seems  to  us. 

Fifty-Five  Million  Renters 

The  multitude  of  landless,  homeless  people  in  the  United  States  in 
1910  numbered  55,000,000  souls.  And  mind  you,  this  is  the  sorry  state 
of  affairs  in  a  land  and  country  with  one  and  a  half  billion  idle, 
wilderness  acres.  Our  homeless  people  are  three-fifths  of  our  entire 
population.  Eleven  and  a  half  million  are  farmers  and  their  families 


62  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

living  on  and  cultivating  other  people's  land,  and  44,000,000  are 
bread-winners  in  other  occupations,  living  for  the  most  part  in  the 
village,  town  and  city  centers  of  the  United  States — daily  wage-earners 
in  mills  and  factories,  and  people  in  salaried  positions  of  all  sorts. 

Town  and  country  tenancy  in  the  United  States  ranges  from  23 
percent  in  North  Dakota,  an  agricultural  state,  to  70  percent  in  Rhode 
Island,  a  highly  developed  industrial  state. 


The  Homeless  in  Carolina 

In  North  Carolina  52  percent  of  all  our  dwellings,  in  town  and 
country  regions,  are  occupied  by  renters.  Eleven  hundred  and  eighty 
thousand  of  our  people  of  both  races  are  landless  and  homeless.  Our 
farm  tenants  do  not  have  their  legs  under  their  own  tables,  as  the 
Danes  say;  and  our  town  dwellers  living  in  rented  houses  spend  their 
days  and  nights,  like  poor  Dante,  going  up  and  down  other  people's 
stairs. 

Twenty-eight  states  make  a  better  showing  than  North  Carolina  in 
the  ownership  of  homes  and  farms,  and  17  a  poorer  showing.  These 
17  states  are  all  in  the  densely  populated  industrial  areas  of  the  North 
and  East,  and  in  the  cotton  belt  states  south  of  us,  where  farm  ten- 
ancy is  excessive. 

A  White  Man's  Problem 

It  is  well  to  keep  clearly  in  mind  the  fact  that  even  in  the  South 
farm  tenancy  is  a  white  man's  problem  mainly.  Contrary  to  the 
popular  notion,  it  is  not  a  negro  problem  mainly.  The  white  farm 
tenants  of  Virginia  outnumber  the  negro  farm  tenants  by  nearly 
17,000,  in  North  Carolina  by  19,000,  and  in  the  South  at  large  by  nearly 
156,000. 

And  the  situation  is  peculiarly  distressing  where  white  and  black 
farm  tenants  work  side  by  side  in  nearly  equal  numbers,  as  in  Hali- 
fax, Henry,  Nansemond,  Northampton,  and  Westmoreland  counties, 
Virginia,  and  in  18  counties  of  North  Carolina — mainly  in  our  cotton 
and  tobacco  areas. 

How  Our  Counties  Bank 

Elsewhere  in  this  issue  we  give  a  table  based  on  Volume  I  of  the 
1910  Census — the  work  of  Mr.  S.  H.  Hobbs,  Jr.,  of  Sampson  county. 
The  figures  cover  the  dwellings  occupied  by  renters  in  our  town 
and  country  regions — dwellings  occupied  by  farmers  in  the  country- 
side and  by  people  in  all  other  bread-winning  occupations,  mainly  in 
our  village,  town,  and  city  centers. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  63 

Dare  and  Alleghany  Lead 

The  best  showing  in  home  ownership  is  made  in  Dare,  where  91 
people  in  the  hundred  live  in  their  very  own  homes,  and  the  next  best 
showing  is  made  by  Alleghany,  where  nearly  exactly  four-fifths  of 
the  people  dwell  under  their  own  vines  and  fig  trees,  unmolested  and 
unafraid. 

The  poorest  showing  is  made  by  Scotland  county,  where  22  people 
in  the  hundred  own  all  the  land  and  all  the  dwellings  of  every  sort, 
while  78  in  the  hundred  cultivate  other  people's  land  and  live  in  other 
people's  houses.  Standing  next  to  the  bottom  is  Edgecombe,  where 
nearly  three-fourths  of  the  people  are  landless  and  homeless.  In  these 
two  counties  are  nearly  5,000  landless  whites — counting  tenant  farm- 
ers and  their  families. 

Home  ownership  is  the  rule  in  (1)  our  Mountain  counties,  Hay  wood 
excepted,  (2)  in  22  counties  of  the  Foot  Hill  country  east  of  the  Ridge 
where  grain,  hay  and  forage  are  the  chief  farm  crops,  (3)  in  7  counties 
of  the  Lower  Cape  Pear,  and  (4)  in  12  of  the  Tide  Water  counties- 
New  Hanover,  Jones,  Craven,  Pitt,  Northampton,  Hertford,  Perquim- 
ans,  Pasquotank,  and  Camden  falling  below  48  per  cent,  the  state 
average  of  home  ownership.  In  Jones  county,  for  instance,  nearly 
two-thirds  of  the  all  the  people  are  landless  and  homeless. 

The  Fatal  Law 

The  more  populous  and  prosperous  a  community  becomes  the  fewer 
are  the  people  that  live  in  homes  of  their  own,  and  the  larger  the  multi- 
tude of  tenants  and  renters.  It  is  mortal  strange  that  advancing 
civilization  should  mean  decreasing  home-ownership,  in  Christendom, 
in  this  year  of  our  Lord  1917.  But  such  is  the  fact,  and  there  is  no 
more  anomalous  thing  in  all  the  world  today. 

Where  city  civilization  is  most  highly  developed  in  North  Carolina 
the  ratios  of  home  ownership  are  low.  In  Asheville,  Charlotte,  and 
Wilmington  two-thirds  of  the  people  live  in  rented  dwellings;  in 
Raleigh  70  percent;  Durham  71  percent,  and  in  Winston  72  percent. 
Greensboro  leads  the  cities  of  the  state  in  home  ownership,  and  yet 
62  percent  of  her  people  live  in  houses  they  do  not  own. 

In  the  great  cities  of  the  North  and  East  the  ratios  of  homeless- 
ness  run  into  almost  unbelievable  figures.  For  instance,  in  Jersey 
City,  Brooklyn,  and  Boston  20  people  in  the  hundred  own  all  the 
dwellings,  while  80  in  the  hundred  are  tenants  and  renters.  In  Man- 
hattan and  the  Bronx  94  people  in  the  hundred  are  renters.  In  Greater 
New  York,  as  a  whole,  11  people  in  the  hundred  own  all  the  land  and 
all  the  dwellings,  while  89  in  the  hundred  live  in  rented  dwellings, 
mostly  tenement  houses  and  apartment  buildings. 


64  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

New  York  City  is  a  civilization  of  cliff  dwellers — genuinely  so;  but 
unlike  the  Aztecs  the  New  Yorkers  do  not  dwell  under  their  own  roof- 
trees.  And  they  are  forever  on  the  move  from  one  neighborhood  to 
another.  They  flit  from  Brookyln  to  the  Bronx,  from  the  Long  Island 
villages  to  the  Jersey  hills  and  back  again  a  half  dozen  times  in  as 
many  years.  They  are  identified  with  no  locality.  They  have  no  abid- 
ing interest  in  local  churches  or  schools.  Their  sense  of  civic  responsi- 
bility is  reduced  to  a  minimum;  and  this  lack  of  robust,  responsible 
citizenship  imperils  good  government  in  every  large  city  center  in 
America.  Irresponsible  citizenship  on  part  of  roving  renters  freely 
licenses  every  form  of  sin  and  shame,  greed  and  graft,  crime  and  cor- 
ruption in  our  great  cities.  Democracy  has  no  greater  problem  in  our 
cities  than  its  homeless  population  offers. 

Sojourners  in  the  Land 

The  tenants  in  our  farm  regions  are  sojourners,  strangers,  and  pil- 
grims in  the  earth.  They  have  no  stake  in  the  land.  They  are  tethered 
to  no  locality  by  the  ties  of  ownership.  They  are  forever  seeking 
new  fields  and  pastures  green.  They  have  little  or  no  chance  to 
develop  an  abiding  interest  in  schools  and  churches,  in  good  roads,  in 
greater  attention  to  public  sanitation,  in  local  law  and  order,  in  com- 
munity organizations  and  enterprises  for  progress  and  prosperity, 
welfare  and  well-being.  Upon  an  average  a  little  more  than  half  of  our 
farm  tenants  in  the  South  move  every  year.  In  some  neighborhoods 
the  ratios  of  change  are  larger,  in  others  smaller.  Their  children 
change  schools  and  teachers  so  often  that  they  soon  drop  out  altogether. 

The  Peril  of  Illiteracy 

As  a  result  wherever  we  find  excessive  tenancy  we  find  undue  illit- 
eracy. Farm  tenancy  and  illiteracy  are  twin-born  social  menaces. 
They  are  twins  at  birth  and  boon  companions  throughout  life.  And 
neither  can  be  cured  without  curing  the  other.  Tenancy  breeds  illit- 
eracy, and  illiteracy  breeds  tenancy  among  the  native  born  whites  of 
the  South.  As  long  as  we  have  tenancy  we  shall  have  illiteracy.  The 
increase  of  illiteracy  among  white  men  and  women  in  our  country 
regions  since  1850  is  due  to  steadily  increasing  tenancy  among  white 
farmers  in  fifty  counties  of  the  state.  Other  causes — like  sparsity  of 
population  and  raucous  individualism — produce  illiteracy,  as  in  our 
mountain  counties  and  in  the  lower  Cape  Fear  region,  but  the  con- 
stant accompaniment  of  farm  tenancy  is  illiteracy. 

Perils  to  the  Church 

Another  thing  is  true.  High  ratios  of  farm  tenancy  mean  low  ratios 
of  church  membership.  For  instance,  in  21  of  our  white  cotton  and 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  65 

tobacco  counties  we  find  excessive  tenancy  and  undue  illiteracy;  and 
in  these  21  counties  are  massed  more  than  a  fourth  of  all  the  non- 
church  members  of  the  entire  state — 171,427  all  told.  These  figures 
cover  only  the  people  who  are  ten  years  old  and  over.  The  ratios  of 
non-church  membership  range  from  27  percent  of  all  the  people  of 
responsible  ages  in  Vance  to  77  percent  in  Edgecombe,  and  the  per- 
sons outside  the  church  range  from  1,033  in  Camden  to  16,455  in  Edge- 
bers  outside  the  church  range  from  1,033  in  Camden  to  16,455  in  Edge- 
combe.  In  eight  of  these  counties  more  than  half  the  people  of  these 
age  groups  are  outside  the  church,  and  in  one  county  more  than  three- 
fourths  of  them. 

Verily  the  church  must  set  herself  to  the  task  of  destroying  tenancy 
and  illiteracy,  or  tenancy  and  illiteracy  will  reduce  the  church  to  a 
minimum  in  our  country  regions.  They  are  our  two  great  home-mis- 
sion tasks. 

The  Source  of  the  111 

So  far  we  have  said  little  about  the  fundamental  cause  of  increasing 
homelessness  in  America.  Isaiah's  analysis  is  complete:  The  cause  lies 
in  our  joining  house  to  house  and  laying  field  to  field  until  no  place  is 
left  in  the  earth  for  the  poor.  The  social  sin  of  holding  land  out  of 
productive  use  for  speculative  rises  in  value  has  not  yet  been  laid 
upon  the  conscience  of  Christendom  in  any  large,  courageous  way. 
Because  of  this  sin,  among  others,  Judah  went  away  into  captivity; 
and  the  same  cause  among  others  is  leading  one  million  a  hundred 
and  eighty  thousand  people  in  North  Carolina  and  fifty-five  million 
people  in  the  United  States  into  economic  serfdom. 

A  landless,  homeless  population  offers  a  perilous  foundation  for 
stability,  sanity,  and  safety  in  our  developing  Democracy  in  America. 
Popular  intelligence  and  Christian  conscience  must  get  busy  with  the 
problem.  British  Columbia,  Manitoba,  Australia,  and  New  Zealand 
have  gone  at  it  hammer-and-tongs,  and  we  must  get  at  it  earnestly  in 
North  Carolina  and  in  every  other  state  of  the  Union. 

When  our  boys  get  back  home  from  the  trenches  abroad  they  ought 
to  find  it  easily  possible  to  own  homes  and  farms  of  their  own  in  the 
United  States  just  as  in  Canada.  It  will  be  an  unpardonable  sin  on 
part  of  American  democracy  to  force  them  into  the  ranks  of  our 
landless,  homeless  multitude. 

The  Cure  for  It 

An  effective  remedy  lies  in  a  progressive  land  tax.  It  took  twenty 
years  to  get  such  a  tax  on  the  law  books  and  in  force  in  New  Zealand; 
and  it  will  take  even  longer  in  America  unless  Christian  consciences 
are  willing  to  consider  Isaiah's  proposition  competently  and  to  stand 
for  the  remedy  courageously. 

5 


66  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

The  Progressive  Land  Tax,  and  its  results  are  treated  at  length  in 
Henry  Demorest  Lloyd's  Newest  England;  Frank  Parsons'  Story  of 
New  Zealand;  Douglas's  Dominion  of  New  Zealand,  and  the  Official 
Year  Book  of  New  Zealand.  All  of  these  books  can  be  had  in  any 
public  library.— E.  C.  Branson,  in  the  University  of  N.  C.  News  Letter, 
Vol.  Ill,  No.  36. 


HOME -OWNERSHIP  IN  THE  CAROLINA  CITIES 

Sensible  people  in  the  towns  and  cities  have  long  ago  learned  that 
the  simplest,  easiest,  least  expensive  way  of  getting  under  one's  own 
roof  tree  is  to  get  into  a  well-managed  building  and  loan  association. 

They  are  a  great  beneficence,  and  have  everywhere  promoted  the 
ownership  of  homes.  A  wise  man  finds  it  out  early  in  life. 

It  is  well  to  remember  that  in  general  the  more  populous  and  pros- 
perous communities  become  the  fewer  are  the  people  that  dwell  under, 
their  own  vines  and  fig  trees,  unmolested  and  unafraid. 

Thus  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  country  dwellers,  but  only  one-third 
of  the  city  dwellers,  are  home  owners  in  the  United  States. 

Spokane  with  51.3  percent  made  the  best  showing  in  home  owner- 
ship in  the  United  States  among  the  50  cities  having  100,000  or  more 
inhabitants  in  1910;  and  Greater  New  York  City  with  11.7  percent  the 
poorest. 

Greensboro  Leads  the  State 

In  North  Carolina,  the  best  showing  is  made  by  Greensboro  with  38 
per  cent;  and  Winston  with  28  per  cent  made  the  poorest  showing. 

Our  seven  largest  towns  in  1910  show  as  follows  in  home  ownership: 
Greensboro,  38  percent;  Charlotte,  Asheville,  and  Wilmington,  34  per- 
cent each;  Raleigh,  30  percent;  Durham,  29  percent,  and  Winston, 
28  percent. 

In  a  growing  community  the  average  man's  chance  to  own  his  own 
home  decreases  with  every  passing  day. — E.  C.  Branson,  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  N.  C.  News  Letter,  Vol.  I,  No.  46. 


HOMELESSNESS  IN  AMERICA 

Our  Landless,  Homeless  Multitudes  in  North  Carolina,  in  town  and 
country  regions,  as  exhibited  in  the  University  News  Letter  August  1, 
seems  to  have  taken  our  readers  by  surprise. 

A  score  or  more  letters  are  already  on  our  desk  asking  how  North 
Carolina  ranks  in  this  matter  among  the  states  of  the  Union.  So  we 
are  this  week  printing  the  table  that  gives  this  information  in  full 
detail. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  67 

These  facts  challenge  attention  on  part  of  virile  thinkers  in  the 
field  of  education,  manufacture,  civic  life,  and  church  enterprise. 

This  lack  of  farm-ownership  in  our  country  regions  and  of  home- 
ownership  in  our  mill  villages  and  our  town  and  city  centers — what 
are  the  causes,  the  consequences,  and  the  remedies? 

How  far  does  the  homeless  estate  of  55,000,000  people  in  the  United 
States  lie  in  individual  deficiencies — in  the  lack  of  industry,  thrift, 
sobriety,  sagacity,  personal  integrity,  and  the  like?  How  far  does  it 
lie  in  the  rapid  increase  of  land  values  that  puts  home  and  farm 
ownership  beyond  the  reach  of  likely  tenants  and  renters  in  our 
country  regions  and  city  centers? 

What  Does  it  Mean? 

What  are  the  effects  of  homelessness  upon  personality?  upon  the 
family  and  the  home?  upon  industrial  stability  and  security?  upon 
social  and  anti-social  attitudes?  upon  the  sense  of  civic  responsibility? 
upon  local  law  and  order?  upon  community  organization  and  enter- 
prise? and  upon  illiteracy  and  poverty?  upon  church  work  and  com- 
munity welfare?  upon  the  development  of  democracy — stable,  sane, 
and  safe?  upon  democracy  in  economic,  social,  civic  and  spiritual 
realms? 

If  there  are  any  sequential,  consequential  relationships  between 
home  and  farm  ownership  on  the  one  hand  and  these  various  vital 
concerns  of  sane  democracy  on  the  other,  it  is  high  time  we  were 
getting  a  fist  around  the  facts  and  thinking  them  out  to  some  compe- 
tent conclusions. 

What  have  been  the  effects  of  well  nigh  universal  home-ownership 
in  Switzerland,  Denmark,  South  Germany,  France,  and  New  Zealand? 

What  have  been  the  effects  of  homelessness  upon  Mexico,  China, 
Japan,  and  India?  What  penalties  is  England  paying  today  for  the 
landless,  homeless,  and  well  nigh  propertyless  estate  of  four-fifths  of 
her  entire  population? 

And  so  on  and  on.  It  is  a  tremendously  large  question;  and  all 
we  are  trying  to  do  in  the  rush  of  things  here  in  the  closing  days 
of  the  Summer  School  is  to  thrust  it  into  the  quick  of  our  thinking 
in  North  Carolina.  If  anybody  is  interested,  we  shall  be  glad  to 
furnish  a  reading  list  in  this  field  of  democratic  concern — when  we 
get  back  to  our  desk  in  September. 

Three  Ways  Out 

Meanwhile,  the  way  out  lies  (1)  in  Cooperative  Credit  Unions  among 
groups  of  small  wage  earners  in  our  industrial  and  trade  centers,  and 
among  our  farmers  in  the  countryside,  under  our  present  Cooperation 
Laws  in  North  Carolina,  (2)  in  an  immense  expansion  of  business  by 


STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 


our  Building  and  Loan  Associations,  and  (3)  in  a  proper  Progressive 
Land  Tax,  modeled  on  the  New  Zealand  laws  that  have  now  been  tried 
out  twenty  years  or  so. 

But  before  any  widespread  increase  of  effort  in  any  of  these  direc- 
tions is  possible,  popular  intelligence  will  need  to  be  schooled  during 
the  next  decade  in  North  Carolina  by  our  leaders — our  real  leaders 
in  civic  life,  education,  manufacture,  banking,  and  trade,  and  above  all 
by  our  leaders  in  the  larger  realm  of  church  life  and  spiritual  democ- 
racy.— E.  C.  Branson,  in  the  University  of  N.  C.  News  Letter,  Vol.  Ill, 
No.  39. 


TOWN  AND  COUNTRY  TENANCY  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Based  on  Volume  I  of  the  1910  Federal  Censns 

The  landless,  homeless  people  in  the  United  States,  in  town  and 
country  regions  in  1910,  numbered  55,629,000  souls,  or  three-fifths  of  our 
entire  population.  U.  S.  ratio  60  percent;  N.  C.  ratio  52  percent. — 
University  of  N.  C.  News  Letter,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  39. 


Rank    States  Pet.  rented 

Dwellings 

1  North  Dakota 23 

2  New  Mexico 29 

3  Idaho   30 

4  South  Dakota 31 

5  Oregon 33 

6  Utah  34 

7  Wisconsin 85 

8  Minnesota 37 

8  Michigan     37 

8  Maine    37 

11  Montana    38 

12  Kansas    40 

12  Nebraska    40 

14  Washington    41 

14  Iowa    41 

14  Vermont    41 

17  Nevada    44 

17  Wyoming    44 

17  Indiana     44 

20  Colorado    47 

20  Virginia    47 

22  Kentucky    48 

22  Missouri    48 

22  Ohio     48 

22  New  Hampshire  .  48 


Rank     States  Pet.  rented 
Dwellings 

26  California  49 

27  Arizona   50 

27     West   Virginia    50 

29     North  Carolina 52 

29     Tennessee  52 

29     Arkansas     52 

32    Oklahoma    53 

32     Florida    53 

34     Texas  54 

34     Maryland    54 

36  Illinois    55 

37  Pennsylvania    57 

38  Delaware    58 

39  Connecticut    61 

40  Alabama   62 

41  New  Jersey   63 

42  Mississippi    64 

43  Massachusetts    66 

43     Louisiana    66 

45     Georgia    67 

45     South  Carolina 67 

45     New  York    67 

48  Rhode   Island    70 

49  District  Columbia  .  72 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C. 


TOWN  AND  COUNTRY  TENANCY  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 
Based  on  the  1910  Census 

Eleven  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  people  in  North  Carolina  in 
town  and  country  regions  are  landless  and  homeless,  or  52  per  cent 
of  the  total  population. — S.  H.  Hobbs,  Jr.,  Sampson  County,  Univer- 
sity of  N.  C.  News  Letter,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  36. 


Rank     Counties         Rented  Homes 
Per  Cent 

1  Dare    8.6 

2  Alleghany   20.1 

3  Carteret    23.7 

4  Ashe     25. 

5  Watauga    25.3 

6  Wilkes    29.7 

7  Alexander 30. 

8  Kladen   31.9 

9  Randolph    32.4 

10  Brunswick    32.7 

11  Macon    32.8 

12  Mitchell    33. 

13  Graham     33.4 

14  Yadkin  33.5 

15  Jackson 33.6 

16  Henderson    34.3 

17  Fender    34.8 

18  Famlico     35.4 

19  Columbus   35.6 

20  Vance  35.7 

21  Tyrrell    36.4 

22  Burke    38.3 

23  Gates   38.4 

23  Yancey    38.4 

23  Catawba    38.4 

26  Sampson  38.5 

27  Davidson    38.6 

28  Surry 38.8 

29  Caldwell 38.9 

29  Clay   38.9 

31  Transylvania 39.3 

32  Onslow    39.8 

32  Moore    39.8 

34  Orange    41.5 

35  McDowell  .  42.6 


Rank     Counties         Rented  Homes 
Per  Cent 

36  Duplin   43.6 

37  Cherokee    43.8 

38  Beaufort   44.4 

39  Swain    44.5 

40  Chatham    44.6 

41  Currituck    44.8 

42  Stanly    45.3 

43  Iredell    45.5 

44  Polk   46.2 

45  Washington   46.6 

46  Alamance   47.9 

47  Lincoln    48.1 

48  Harnett   48.4 

49  Stokes    48.8 

50  Hyde    49.1 

51  Madison    49.2 

52  Lee  49.3 

53  Bertie    50.2 

54  Davie    50.5 

55  Martin 51.1 

56  Cleveland    51.2 

56  Buncombe  51.2 

58  Chowan  51.7 

59  Rowan 51.9 

60  Montgomery 52.2 

61  Guilford    52.6 

61  Johnston 52.6 

63  Craven  53. 

63  Hertford   53. 

65  Haywood 53.3 

66  Warren    53.5 

66  Pasquotank    53.5 

68  Cumberland   53.7 

69  Perquimans   54.1 

70  Forsyth  54.6 


70 


STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 


Rank    Counties         Rented  Homes     Rank    Counties         Rented  Homes 


71 
72 
73 

74 
75 
76 
77 
78 
79 
80 
81 
81 
83 
84 


Per  Cent 

Camden 56.8  85 

Rutherford  57.4  85 

Union 57.8  87 

Robeson    59.  88 

Cabarrus 59.2  89 

Granville    59.3  90 

Caswell   59.5  91 

Northampton 59.8  92 

Rockingham 60.2  93 

Richmond  61.6  93 

Person  62.2  95 

Nash    62.2  96 

Wake   62.4  97 

Pitt  62.6  98 


Per  Cent 

Gaston  63.2 

New  Hanover 63.2 

Lenoir    63.8 

Franklin   64.4 

Anson 64.8 

Wayne    65.8 

Jones   66. 

Durham 66.2 

Mecklenburg    66.5 

Wilson 66.5 

Halifax    67.8 

Greene    71.1 

Edgecombe  74.1 

Scotland    .  77.8 


HOME  AND  FARM  OWNERSHIP 

MYRON  T.  GREEN,  MARSHVILLE,  N.  C. 

Remedial  Measures 

In  this  study  of  home  and  farm  ownership  in  North  Carolina  we  are 
concerned  fundamentally  with  the  question  of  getting  rid  of  our  present 
system  of  farm  tenancy,  and  the  evil  tendencies  that  are  the  outgrowth 
of  the  merchant-supply,  crop-lien  system  of  agriculture.  Such  a  sys- 
tem discourages  thrift,  one  of  the  five  home-owning  virtues,  and  en- 
courages a  one-crop  system  of  agriculture,  our  chief  industry,  putting  it 
on  such  a  footing  that  it  is  economically  impossible  for  a  farmer  to 
obtain  more  than  the  bare  necessities  of  life,  to  say  nothing  of  accumu- 
lating enough  capital  to  enable  him  to  own  his  own  home  and  farm. 

Our  present  system  offers  no  encouragement  but  rather  discourage- 
ment to  those  exceptional  farmers  who  deserve  to  own  their  own  farms 
and  homes.  I  am  speaking  here  of  the  farmers  who  make  farming 
their  business,  whose  farms  are  their  sole  source  of  income,  and  not 
of  absentee-farmers  who  earn  their  livelihood  by  other  means,  who 
capitalize  farms  held  by  them  for  speculative  purposes  and  cultivated 
by  tenant  farmers,  often  by  negro  tenant  farmers. 

To  the  industrial  laborer  who  desires  to  own  his  own  home  we 
likewise  offer  no  encouragement,  except  in  a  few  rare  instances  of  a 
corporation's  efforts  to  better  living  conditions  among  its  employees 
by  encouraging  thrift  through  plans  whereby  the  employee  may  get 
the  money  to  buy  his  home,  either  through  direct  loans  on  long  term 
and  easy  payments,  or  by  encouraging  him  to  invest  in  building  and 
loan  associations. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB;  U.  OF  "N.  C.  71 

Constructive  Proposals 

We  offer  the  following  proposals  for  the  solution  of  our  home  and 
farm  ownership  problem  in  North  Carolina: 

1.  Amend  Article  V,  section  3,  of  our  State  Constitution,  so  as  to  allow 
(1)   a  progressive  or  graduated  land  tax  similar  to  that  of  New  Zea- 
land,  giving  low  rates  on  improvements,  higher  rates  on  land,  and 
still  higher  rates  on  lands  held  out  of  productive  uses  for  speculative 
rises  in  value,  and   (2)   exemptions  or  low  rates  on  small  properties 
while  occupied  and  operated  or  used  by  owners. 

2.  Adopt  an  improved  system  of  rural  credits  whereby  a  farmer  may 
borrow  money  on  long  term  at  low  rate  of  interest  with  which  to  buy 
his  farm. 

3.  Require  a  written  contract  between  landlord  and  lessee  or  renter. 

4.  Substitute  a  long-term  lease  instead  of  the   short-term  lease  on 
farm  properties. 

5.  The    adoption    by    landlords,    merchants    and    banks    of    a    crop 
lien   reading  in  terms  of   food  and  feed  crops  as  well   as  cotton  or 
tobacco  acreage. 

A  Reformed  System  of  Taxation 

In  the  first  place,  we  must  have  a  reformed  system  of  taxation  that 
will  encourage  rather  than  discourage  home  owning.  Under  our 
present  tax  system  a  farmer  who  purchases  land  paying  a  part  down 
and  giving  his  note  or  mortgage  for  the  remainder  is  forced  to  pay 
taxes  on  the  full  value  of  his  purchase.  Another  discouragement  the 
would-be  home  owner  has  to  meet  is  the  fact  that  lands  held  for 
speculation — lands  from  which  the  would-be  home  owners  are  excluded 
by  the  gambling  instincts  of  owners,  and  lands  held  in  large  tracts 
and  cultivated  by  tenants — are  usually  assessed  and  taxed  at  a  far 
lower  rate  than  the  little  home  plots  on  which  sturdy  farmers  are 
trying  to  rear  families  and  nurture  the  state's  future  citizens. 

Land,  the  most  tangible  of  all  forms  of  wealth,  and  the  form  from 
which  production  begins  and  all  material  things  are  derived,  has  long 
been  our  chief  source  of  revenue  through  taxation.  It  being  the  most 
tangible  form  of  wealth,  tax  levies  upon  it  have  proved  to  be  the 
simplest  and  easiest  way  of  raising  governmental  revenues.  But  what 
have  been  the  effects  of  these  levies,  especially  in  those  countries  or 
states  where  a  uniform  tax  rate  must  constitutionally  apply? 

To  begin  with,  land  being  the  starting  point  of  production  and  the 
source  of  all  material  things,  free  scope  should  be  given  to  its  de- 
velopment by  removing  hindrances  which  restrict  its  use.  Our  pres- 
ent form  of  land  tax,  the  uniform  rate  tax,  is  one,  and  the  chief  one, 
of  these  hindrances.  It  is  restrictive,  repressive;  it  punishes  industry 
and  rewards  inactivity  or  cupidity.  The  man  who  holds  land  is  at 
present  rated  not  on  the  value  of  the  land  he  holds,  but  on  the  use 


72  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

he  makes  of  it.  The  less  he  develops  it  the  less  he  has  to  pay.  Ever> 
facility  is  given  for  the  unproductive  retention  of  land.  Improvements 
are  penalized,  for  the  greater  the  improvement  the  more  the  tax.  Pro- 
duction is  checked  at  its  source.  Every  form  of  industry  suffers  from 
its  effects,  and  agriculture  most  of  all.  Quoting  from  Dr.  James  D. 
White:  "The  agriculturist  finds  that  his  first  difficulty  is  to  get  land 
on  satisfactory  terms,  then  he  is  hampered  by  a  system  which  rack- 
rakes  him  on  every  improvement  as  soon  as  it  is  made.  If  he  reclaims 
land,  or  levels  it,  or  drains  it,  so  as  to  increase  its  annual  production, 
up  goes  the  assessment  and  up  goes  the  rate.  If  he  builds  a  hay-shed 
or  a  farmhouse,  up  goes  the  assessment  and  up  goes  the  rate.  Every 
improvement  is  promptly  penalized." 

Take  building,  quoting  again  from  Dr.  White:  "The  builder's  first 
difficulty  is  to  get  land  and  to  build  upon  it  on  satisfactory  rates; 
then  as  soon  as  the  house  is  completed  up  goes  the  valuation  and  up 
go  the  rates;  the  larger  the  house,  the  better  it  is,  the  healthier  it  is, 
the  more  he  has  to  contribute  to  the  rates;  if  he  makes  an  extension 
or  adds  a  story,  or  even  puts  on  a  bay  window  he  is  promptly  penalized 
— all  of  which  prevents  proper  housing."  Herein  may  lie  a  cause  of 
so  many  unsightly  homes  in  North  Carolina. 

Then  come  the  effects  on  industrial  plants.  The  first  difficulty  is 
to  get  land,  then,  as  soon  as  the  plants  are  in  working  order  up  go 
the  valuation  and  rates.  The  better,  the  more  airy,  the  more  whole- 
some and  healthy  they  are,  the  higher  they  are  rated.  The  more 
modern  or  effective  the  machinery  is,  the  more  it  is  penalized.  Thus  is 
every  form  of  production  affected  by  the  uniform  land  tax. 

What  is  the  remedy?  Assuming  that  we  are  going  to  continue  to 
tax  land  for  state  or  local  purposes,  some  reform  is  needed  that  tends 
to  promote  home-ownership,  and  multiplied  home-ownership  will  go 
a  great  way  toward  settling  some  of  our  labor  problems,  especially  the 
problems  of  stable  citizenship  and  labor  turnover. 

This  reform  must  likewise  tend  to  discourage  land  speculation  and 
absentee  landlordism.  It  must  place  a  low  rate  on  improvements  and 
a  high  rate  on  lands  held  out  of  productive  uses.  We  have  not  found 
and  tried  a  remedy  for  this  unfair  taxation  of  land,  but  it  will  be 
well  to  consider  what  other  countries  have  tried  and  found  successful, 
as,  for  instance,  the  graduated  land  tax  that  has  been  productive  of 
great  results  in  New  Zealand,  Australia,  Denmark,  and  other  countries. 
Granting  that  the  experience  of  one  country  with  any  proposition  does 
not  necessarily  determine  what  the  experience  of  another  country  might 
be,  where  conditions  are  different,  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why 
a  progressive  land  tax  should  not  produce  greater  equality  and  fair- 
ness in  deriving  state  and  local  revenue  from  land.  Also,  the  social 
effects  of  such  a  system  would  be  greater  under  state-wide  effort  than 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  "N".  C.  73 

under  local  effort.  Before  we  can  adopt  such  a  system  in  North  Caro- 
lina it  will  be  necessary  to  amend  Article  V,  Section  3,  of  our  Con- 
stitution so  as  to  allow  a  graduated  instead  of  a  uniform  rate. 

Graduated  Land  Tax 

What  is  meant  by  a  graduated  land  tax?  Take  the  New  Zealand 
system  for  instance.  It  was  seen  that  New  Zealand  was  especially 
suitable  for  supporting  a  closely  settled  population,  and  that  a  dense 
population  would  be  for  the  best  economic  interest  of  the  country. 
Large  land  holdings  had  become  common,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
find  some  way  to  induce  large  landowners  to  sell  their  land,  land  that 
was  for  the  most  part  held  out  of  productive  uses  for  speculative  pur- 
poses. Accordingly  laws  were  passed  introducing  a  system  of  taxation 
on  a  sliding  scale.  The  rate  was  graduated  from  one-sixteenth  of  a 
penny  in  the  pound  sterling  on  land  values  of  5,000  to  7,000  pounds, 
to  thirteen-sixteenths  of  a  penny  on  values  of  35,000  to  40,000  pounds. 
Holdings  that  did  not  exceed  500  acres  were  free  from  the  tax,  those 
of  larger  area,  but  not  exceeding  50,000  acres,  paid  a  land  tax  which 
increased  gradually  with  every  additional  5,000  acres  until  it  reached 
a  total  of  5  percent  on  the  value  of  the  land  for  estates  of  more  than 
50,000  acres.  A  special  surtax  was  added  for  absentee-owners,  increas- 
ing the  graduated  rate  for  such  owners  by  50  percent.  Such  a  system 
did  not  break  up  the  large  land  holdings  already  in  existence,  but  it 
proved  highly  effective  in  preventing  further  large  holdings.  It  was 
an  instrument  not  for  breaking  up  large  holdings,  but  for  preventing 
an  increase  in  such  holdings.  The  purpose  of  the  system  was  to  en- 
courage close  settlement,  to  prevent  speculation  and  to  give  every 
one  an  equal  right  to  own  a  home,  by  a  system  of  taxation  that  made 
large  land  holdings  unprofitable.  The  graduated  land  tax  is  still  held 
to  in  New  Zealand  as  the  fairest  possible  system  of  land  taxation, 
because  it  makes  every  man  bear  his  share  of  the  government  expense 
in  proportion  to  his  ability  to  pay,  regarding  his  wealth  in  lands  and 
the  possibility  of  gaining  wealth  from  lands  in  production  as  a  fair 
measure  of  his  ability  to  pay.  Lands  are  assessed  at  their  capital  value 
less  the  value  of  all  improvements;  that  is,  improvement  is  encour- 
aged by  exempting  all  improvements  from  taxation,  and  in  this  way 
unimproved  lands  held  for  speculative  purposes  are  taxed  more  heavily 
than  lands  improved  for  productive  purposes. 

Kural  Credits 

Along  with  a  reformed  system  of  taxation  should  come  some  method 
whereby  the  thrifty  tenant  can  borrow  money  on  long-time  repayments 
to  the  lending  agency.  It  is  now  practically  impossible  for  a  small 
farmer  to  borrow  money  to  buy  a  home.  He  must  either  borrow  from 


74          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

some  bank  on  short  time  or  from  an  individual  on  slightly  longer 
time.  The  building  and  loan  associations  to  a  small  extent  are  an 
aid  to  rural  credits,  but  as  yet  such  associations  are  but  slightly 
active  in  rural  districts,  and  a  plan  is  needed  that  is  more  extensive. 
Such  a  plan  should  be  under  government  direction  or  regulation,  and 
to  be  successful  the  money  should  be  loaned  by  the  government,  on 
easy  terms,  at  a  low  rate,  and  for  a  period  of  say  thirty  or  forty 
years.  Such  a  plan  has  proved  successful  in  Denmark,  New  Zealand, 
and  Australia.  Loans  are  made  on  the  amortization  plan;  that  is,  the 
borrower  pays  a  stated  sum  annually  or  semiannually  rated  against 
the  sum  borrowed,  the  time  of  the  loan,  and  the  rate  of  interest;  which 
annual  payments  kill  or  amortize  the  debt  at  the  end  of  the  loan 
period. 

For  instance,  in  New  Zealand  a  man  can  buy  a  farm  and  pay  for  it 
in  twenty  years  by  paying  four  percent  eemiannually,  two  and  a  half 
percent  going  as  interest  and  one  and  a  half  percent  as  payment  on 
the  principal.  A  similar  system  has  been  devised  by  our  Federal  F'arm 
Loan  Bank,  and  is  now  in  operation  among  the  borrowers  from  this 
source  of  loans. 

This  system,  however,  needs  to  be  extended  so  as  to  reach  the  class 
in  greatest  need  of  such  aid,  namely,  the  tenant  class,  or  at  least 
the  farmers  in  that  class  who  have  a  desire  to  own  their  own  homes. 
The  Farm  Loan  Bank  does  not  yet  reach  that  class  effectively.  Mainly 
it  aids  farmers  already  owning  their  homes  toward  the  improvement 
of  their  homes  and  farms,  but  it  fails  to  reach  the  farmers  who  are 
struggling  to  command  enough  ready  cash  to  enable  them  to  buy  and 
own  farms,  under  supply-merchant,  crop-lien  conditions. 

Written  Contract  Between  Landlord  and  Tenant 

We  would  propose  also  that,  in  place  of  our  lax  system  of  contracts 
between  landlord  and  lessee,  a  more  specific  method  be  adopted 
requiring  a  written  contract  between  landlord  and  lessee.  In  North 
Carolina  practically  no  contract  is  made  other  than  a  verbal  agree- 
ment that  covers  a  year  or  a  crop  season,  a  rate  of  rent,  what  the  ten- 
ant is  to  furnish  besides  his  labor  and  the  labor  of  his  family,  what 
the  landlord  is  to  furnish  besides  land  and  house,  as  fuel,  fertilizers, 
live  stock,  etc.  We  should  have  a  written  contract  as  required  by  the 
State  of  Wisconsin,  and  the  contract  should  cover  fully  the  terms  of 
the  lease,  such  as  description  of  the  farm,  uses  of  property,  disposition 
of  products,  use  of  manure  made  on  the  farm,  purchase  of  feed  and 
fertilizers,  destruction  of  noxious  weeds,  value  of  a  tidy  farm,  new 
buildings  and  fences,  repairs  on  buildings  and  fences,  fence  posts, 
firewood,  the  road  tax,  duration  of  the  lease,  time  of  paying  rent, 
guarantee  that  the  rent  shall  be  paid,  and  provision  for  enforcing  the 
contracts. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  75 

In  the  item  of  duration  of  the  lease  we  would  propose  a  specific 
long-term  lease  instead  of  a  vague  short-term  lease.  The  advantage 
of  such  a  long-term  lease  is  well  summed  up  by  Dr.  John  Lee  Coulter 
as  follows: 

"With  a  long-term  lease  the  evil  of  instability  will  be  largely  over- 
come. The  farm  operator  will  become  interested  in  the  farm;  he 
will  cultivate  it  better;  he  will  keep  up  the  fertility;  he  will  improve 
the  buildings;  he  will  become  interested  in  the  country  roads  and 
the  lane  which  leads  to  the  building;  he  will  take  an  interest  in  the 
neighborhood  school,  and  church,  and  lodge  room.  He  may  even  become 
a  member  of  the  local  clubs  which  are  organized  for  economic  pur- 
poses. He  may  own  a  share  of  stock  in  the  store,  or  the  bank,  or  the 
creamery,  or  the  canning  factory,  or  the  cotton  warehouse,  or  the 
live  stock  shipping  association.  Indeed,  he  will  become  a  part  of  the 
community." 

The  long-term  lease  is  practiced  in  Great  Britain,  New  Zealand, 
Denmark,  and  practically  all  European  countries.  In  Great  Britain 
the  tenant  must  be  given  legal  protection  for  the  improvement  he 
makes  in  soil  fertility  or  in  the  general  appearance  and  value  of  the 
place.  He  is  given  credit  for  any  improvement  he  makes,  and  is 
penalized  for  any  permanent  injury  he  wilfully  does  to  the  property. 
Both  tenant  and  landlord  are  given  protection  each  against  the  other. 
The  period  of  lease  for  farm  lands  is  usually  for  twenty  years,  and 
frequently  for  fifty  years;  for  city  property,  fifty  and  ninety-nine 
years.  In  New  Zealand  the  term  of  lease  varies  from  twenty-five  to 
sixty-six  years  on  all  property. 

The  Crop  Lien 

Lastly,  since  the  time  is  not  yet  ripe  for  the  complete  elimination 
of  the  crop  lien,  we  would  propose  that  the  crop  lien  be  changed  to 
include  food  and  feed  crops  as  well  as  money  crops  (cotton  and  to- 
bacco). This  is  needed  to  encourage  the  home  production  of  food  and 
feed  crops.  Under  our  present  crop-lien  law  the  tenant  places  a  lien 
upon  his  money  crop  for  the  necessities  of  life  during  the  year;  that 
is,  for  food  and  clothing  for  himself  and  family.  Thus  in  order  to  be 
able  to  meet  the  terms  of  the  lien  he  turns  his  whole  attention  to 
the  production  of  these  money  crops,  neglecting  the  production  of 
food  and  feed  crops.  The  result  is  that  North  Carolina  sends  millions 
upon  millions  to  the  West  each  year  for  food  and  feed  supplies.  This 
money  might  well  be  kept  at  home. 

The  plan  in  use  in  Texas  is  a  good  one.  The  Texas  crop  lien,  in 
order  to  be  acceptable  collateral  at  a  bank,  must  cover  food  and 
feed  crops  as  well  as  the  money  crop.  Down  in  Texas  they  call  it 
the  half-and-half  plan — half  the  farm  acreage  in  food  and  feed  crops 


76  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

and  half  in  cotton.  In  this  way  the  farmer  is  forced  to  raise  both, 
and  the  plan  to  a  great  extent  makes  Texas  self-sufficing.  The  saving 
each  year  in  the  state  is  around  $155,000,000  in  average  years.  This 
plan  was  adopted  by  the  bankers  of  Texas  as  a  solution  of  their  local 
market  problem,  and  it  has  come  near  solving  it. — Myron  T.  Green, 
Chairman  Sub-Committee  on  Home  and  Farm  Ownership. 
January  12,  1920. 


COUNTRY-HOME  COMFORTS  AND  CONVENIENCES 

R.  R.  HAWFIELD,  MATTHEWS,  N.  C. 

Country-home  conveniences,  comforts,  and  luxuries  are  related  to 
economic  and  social  welfare  in  our  farm  areas,  but  until  very  recently 
little  attention  has  been  given  to  this  field  of  state  and  national  con- 
cern. Of  late  years  the  Federal  Agricultural  Department  is  getting 
busy  with  this  problem  the  country  over;  also  the  Farm  Extension 
Service  in  every  state.  In  North  Carolina  the  State  Legislature,  the 
State  Highway  Commission,  and  the  State  University  have  combined 
to  serve  the  country  homes  of  the  state  free  of  charge. 

The  question  of  country-home  conveniences  and  comforts  is  related 
to  farm  ownership,  and  farm  ownership  and  country-home  comforts 
are  related  to  the  stability  of  country  populations.  The  lack  of  home 
comforts  promotes  the  exodus  of  people  from  country  regions  to  town 
areas.  Here  is  a  large  part  of  the  explanation  of  the  cityward  drift 
of  country  people.  When  a  country  family  moves  to  town  it  is  the 
wife  that  usually  initiates  the  move.  It  is  the  woman  on  the  farm 
who  suffers  most  from  the  lack  of  home  comforts  and  conveniences — 
she  and  her  children. 

In  October,  1913,  the  Federal  Department  of  Agriculture  sent  55,000 
inquiries  to  farm  women  to  determine,  if  possible,  the  chief  source 
of  discontent  among  farm  women.  The  replies  showed  that  country 
discontent  centered  in  the  homes,  and  that  the  chief  of  these  discom- 
forts in  country  homes  is  the  lack  of  running  water.  The  farms  of 
North  Carolina  are  commonly  deficient  in  domestic  water  systems 
piped  into  homes  and  barns,  in  sanitary  garbage  and  waste  disposal, 
inside  bath  and  toilet  facilities,  sewerage  systems,  electric  lights,  in 
motor  power  for  home  comforts  and  farm  machinery.  Such  comforts 
and  conveniences  ought  to  be  common  in  every  country  home.  The 
lack  of  these  things,  along  with  the  lack  of  good  schools  and  efficient 
churches,  often  causes  the  farm  family  to  abandon  farm  life  in  order 
to  become  tenants  and  renters  in  mill  communities  and  town  centers. 

State  University  Aid 

This  state  of  affairs  was  recognized  by  Governor  Thomas  W.  Bickett 
in  1915.  One  of  his  famous  thirty-nine  recommendations  to  the  legis- 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  77 

lature  had  to  do  with  it.  That  year  the  legislature  appropriated 
$5,000  a  year  to  the  State  Highway  Commission  to  enable  it  to  aid 
country  homes  and  country  communities  to  develop  small  nearby 
water  powers  for  domestic  light  and  power  purposes,  and  the  score 
or  more  of  country  conveniences  depending  on  these.  The  law  also 
authorized  the  expenditure  of  this  money  to  promote  the  piping  of 
running  water  into  country  homes,  the  installing  of  domestic  sewage 
disposal  systems,  the  use  of  gas-engine  power,  drainage  and  related 
health  promotion  plans  in  country  areas.  The  law  lay  fallow  for  four 
years  because  it  demanded  expert  engineering — telephone  engineering, 
hydraulic  engineering,  sanitary  engineering,  electrical  engineering, 
gas-engine  engineering,  social  engineering,  and  the  like.  In  1918  the 
University,  at  the  instance  of  the  State  Highway  Commission,  under- 
took to  supply  expert  engineering  service  free  of  charge  to  the  coun- 
try people,  and  at  once  the  Department  of  Country-Home  Conveniences 
and  Comforts  was  organized  as  a  division  of  the  University  Bureau  of 
Extension.  Of  the  199  appeals  already  received  most  or  all  have 
been  investigated  by  the  engineering  field  agents  of  the  division. 

After  a  year  of  this  service  it  becomes  clear  that  the  appropriation 
of  $5,000  will  hardly  pay  the  traveling  expenses  of  the  agents  sent 
afield  for  country  service  of  this  sort.  The  need  for  such  a  service  has 
been  demonstrated,  the  readiness  of  the  University  to  give  it  is  evident, 
and  nothing  but  the  lack  of  funds  limits  the  help  it  can  render. 

Small  Water  Powers 

North  Carolina  is  rich  in  water  powers.  Many  or  most  of  the  large 
water-power  sites  have  been  developed  by  the  great  hydro-electric  com- 
panies. Others  are  bought  in  by  them  for  future  development.  These 
companies  own  and  control  approximately  82  percent  of  our  developed 
commercial  water  powers. 

A  large  source  of  power  for  farm  use  lies  in  the  development  of 
small  water  powers,  and  this  is  especially  true  of  our  mid-state  and 
mountain  counties.  Before  these  can  be  developed  effectively  it  is 
necessary  for  the  state  to  have  definite  knowledge  of  the  location  of 
these  small  water-power  sites  and  the  possibilities  they  present.  This 
calls  for  a  survey  of  the  water-power  resources  of  the  state.  Such  a 
survey  is  now  being  made  by  the  State  Geological  Survey  in  coopera- 
tion with  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  with  Prof.  Thorndike 
Saville  of  the  University  faculty  directly  in  charge.  The  surveys  are 
already  completed  in  Surry  and  Wilkes  counties.  As  a  result  we  shall 
know  about  our  small  water-powers  in  definite  detail  at  some  early 
day,  or  of  those  that  are  500  horsepower  or  over. 


78  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Telephone  Systems 

The  subject  of  country  telephone  systems  has  already  been  studied 
by  the  Club  Committee  on  Transportation  and  Communication.  We 
here  merely  emphasize  the  importance  of  the  telephone  as  an  agency 
for  counteracting  the  discontent  produced  by  the  isolation  of  life  in 
our  country  regions.  To  quote  Dr.  Paul  L.  Voght,  "The  telephone 
comes  into  the  country  home  as  a  partial  solution  of  the  problem  of 
isolation  for  the  wife  and  mother  and  the  girls  of  the  family.  It  be- 
comes a  means  of  distributing  information  about  household  methods. 
It  acts  as  a  medium  through  which  social  affairs  may  be  quickly  and 
conveniently  arranged,  thus  making  possible  social  gatherings  with- 
out the  waste  of  time  once  incident  upon  having  to  drive  from  place 
to  place  to  get  up  a  social  gathering.  It  aids  the  farmer  in  coopera- 
tive enterprises  such  as  threshing  or  for  fixing  the  date  for  cooperative 
marketing  or  purchasing  of  supplies." 

The  rural  telephones  in  North  Carolina  are  either  owned  and  oper- 
ated by  the  large  telephone  companies  at  rates  almost  prohibitive  in 
country  areas  or  they  are  privately  owned  and  operated  by  farm 
groups  in  rural  regions.  When  privately  owned  many  or  most  of  our 
rural  telephone  systems  are  poorly  constructed  and  badly  managed,  and 
the  service  is  commonly  so  poor  as  to  make  them  almost  undesirable. 
This  is  usually  due  to  the  lack  of  knowledge  on  part  of  the  owners, 
and  they  are  often  negligent  about  upkeep  and  thus  allow  the  plant 
to  fall  into  disrepair.  The  telephone  has  its  place  as  a  country-home 
convenience,  and  many  of  our  rural  systems  could  be  helped  into 
greater  efficiency  by  an  agency  from  which  the  managers  could  get 
information,  instruction  and  guidance  concerning  construction,  opera- 
tion, maintenance,  and  administration  of  telephone  systems.  Such  is 
the  work  the  State  University  seeks  to  do  free  of  charge. 

Constructive  Proposals 

In  order  to  continue  the  work  begun  by  the  State  University  and 
the  State  Highway  Commission,  and  to  make  further  extension  of  the 
service,  we  would  recommend: 

1.  That  $10,000  yearly  be  appropriated  for  the  expenses  of  the  field 
agents  of  the  University,  their  services  being  free  to  the  state.     This 
expense    would    cover   both    consulting   and    constructive    engineering 
advice. 

2.  The  establishment  of  an  inspection  and  audit  service  for  country 
telephone    systems. — R.    R.    Hawfield,    Chairman    Sub-Committee    on 
Country-Home  Comforts  and  Conveniences. 

January  12,  1920. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  79 

HOME  AND  FARM  OWNERSHIP  STUDIES 

Outline 

1.  The  facts   and  their  fundamental  significance,   as  related  to   ro- 
bust  personality,   family   integrity,    responsible   citizenship,    industrial 
stability,  and  democracy  under  law  and  order. 

2.  Country-home  conveniences  and  comforts;  University  aid. 

3.  A   progressive    land   tax    (a)    with   low   rates   on   improvements, 
higher  rates  on  land,  and  still  higher  rates  on  land  held  out  of  pro- 
ductive use  for  speculative  rises   in  value,    (b)    with  exemptions   or 
low  rates  on  small  properties  while  occupied  and  operated  or  used  by 
the  owners,  as  in  New  Zealand  and  elsewhere. 

Bibliography 

Reading  references  on  Home  and  Farm  Ownership  for  the  North 
Carolina  Club  Committee.  All  the  books,  bulletins,  clippings,  etc., 
are  in  the  seminar  room  of  the  University  Rural  Social  Science  De- 
partment. 

1.  The  Facts  and  Their  Significance. 

Our  Landless,  Homeless  Multitudes,  town  and  country,  (1)  in  the 
United  States  in  1910— University  News  Letter,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  39;  (2) 
in  North  Carolina  by  counties,  in  1910— Idem,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  36;  (3) 
in  North  Carolina  Cities  in  1910— Idem,  Vol.  I,  No.  46,  and  Vol.  Ill, 
No.  30,  by  E.  C.  Branson,  University  of  North  Carolina. 

Twin-Born  Social  Ills:  Tenancy  and  Illiteracy — E.  C.  Branson,  in 
MSS.  University  Rural  Social  Science  Files. 

The  Way  Out — E.  C.  Branson,  extract  from  War  Time  Strikes. 
University  News  Letter,  Vol.  V,  No.  43. 

Farm  Tenure  in  the  South — John  Lee  Coulter.  A  Census  Bureau 
Press  item,  May,  1912. 

Stability  of  Farm  Operators  in  1910 — John  Lee  Coulter.  A  Census 
Bureau  Bulletin. 

Increase  of  Farm  Tenancy  since  1880,  and  its  Significance — W.  J. 
Ghent,  in  Chapter  IV,  pp.  47-57  of  Benevolent  Feudalism.  Macmillan 
Company,  New  York. 

Farm  Tenancy  in  North  Carolina — E.  C.  Branson,  in  Community 
Service  Week  in  North  Carolina.  State  Department  of  Education. 

Our  Twenty-two  Million  Wilderness  Acres,  Elbow  Room  for  Home- 
Seekers  in  North  Carolina,  Room  in  North  Carolina  for  New  Farm 
Families— North  Carolina  Club  Year-Book,  1915-16.  pp.  56,  66,  and  69. 

Our  Wilderness  Areas — University  News  Letter,  Vol.  I,  No.  37,  and 
Vol  II,  No.  14. 

Home-Seekers  Flock  Southward — University  News  Letter,  Vol.  II, 
No.  17. 


80  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Homes  for  the  Homeless— University  News  Letter,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  12. 

A  Two-Sided  Difficulty— University  News  Letter,  Vol.  II,  No.  23. 

The  Problem  of  Tenancy — R.  F.  Beasley.  A  press  item,  University 
Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  630.131. 

Smoking  Out  the  Land  Hogs — Governor  Henry  J.  Allen.  The  Coun- 
try Gentleman,  December  6,  1919. 

The  Renter  and  Cotton — Mrs.  G.  H.  Mathis,  in  the  Banker-Farmer. 
University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  630.191. 

The  Agricultural  Highwayman — H.  F.  Kohr,  in  The  Technical 
World  Magazine,  July,  1911. 

What  the  Tenant  Farmer  is  Doing  in  the  South — Carl  Crow.  Pear- 
son's Magazine,  June,  1911. 

The  System  Wrong — The  Roanoke-Chowan  Times.  University  Rural 
Social  Science  Files,  No.  630.131. 

Home  Ownership.  Press  clippings — University  Rural  Social  Sci- 
ence Files,  No.  630.131. 

2.  Home  Comforts  and  Conveniences. 

Low-Cost  Water  Works,  reprint  from  The  Country  Gentleman,  July 
11,  1914.  President  Joe  Cook,  Hattiesburg,  Miss. 

Water  Supply,  Plumbing,  and  Sewerage  Disposal  for  Country  Homes 
— United  States  Agricultural  Department  Bulletin  No.  57. 

Water  Systems  for  Farm  Homes — George  M.  Warren.  Farmers' 
Bulletin  No.  941,  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture. 

Farm  Sanitation  Number — Dr.  Hermann  M.  Biggs,  New  York  State 
Health  News,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

Sanitation  in  the  South,  Extension  Leaflet,  Vol.  II,  No.  9 — Uni- 
versity of  North  Carolina,  Chapel  Hill,  N.  C. 

Clean  Water  and  How  to  Get  it  on  the  Farm — Robert  W.  Trullinger. 
Reprint  from  the  1914  Year-Book  of  the  Federal  Department  of  Agri- 
culture. 

The  Hickerson  Steel  Overshot  Water  Wheel  and  Pump  for  Rural 
Homes— Prof.  T.  F.  Hickerson,  University  of  North  Carolina,  Chapel 
Hill,  N.  C. 

Hygiene  of  Rural  Homes,  Circular  No.  100 — State  Board  of  Health, 
Augusta,  Maine. 

The  Healthful  Farm  House — Helen  Dodd.  Whitcomb  Barrows,  Bos- 
ton. 69  pp. 

Rural  Methods  of  Waste  Disposal — Henry  D.  Evans.  Bulletin  11, 
1-2,  State  Department  of  Health,  Augusta,  Maine. 

Modern  Conveniences  for  Rural  Homes — Elmina  T.  Wilson.  Farm- 
ers' Bulletin  No.  270,  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture. 

The  Sanitary  Privy— North  Carolina  State  Public  Health  Bulletin, 
July,  1919.  State  Health  Board,  Raleigh,  N.  C. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  81 

Rural  Sanitation— Public  Health  Bulletin,  No.  94.  United  States 
Public  Health  Service,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Electric  Light  and  Power  from  Small  Streams — A.  M.  Daniels, 
Division  Rural  Engineering,  Bureau  of  Public  Roads.  Year-Book  of 
the  United  States  Agricultural  Department,  1918. 

Practical  Talks  on  Farm  Engineering — R.  P.  Clarkson.  Doubleday, 
Page  and  Company,  New  York.  $1.20  net. 

Farm  houses,  barns,  and  other  farm  structures;  plans,  bills  of  ma- 
terial, etc.,  for  free  distribution — University  Rural  Social  Science 
Files,  No.  630.191. 

3.  Remedies,  the  Progressive  Land  Tax,  etc. 

Social  Welfare  in  New  Zealand— Hugh  J.  Lusk.  Macmillan  Com- 
pany, New  York.  pp.  45-88,  252,  et  seq. 

Reducing  Tenancy — Atlanta  Constitution,  January,  1912.  University 
Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  630.131. 

Tenants  Becoming  Landowners  in  Johnston  County — Smithfield 
Herald.  Idem,  No.  630.131. 

Lloyd  George's  War  on  the  English  Land  System — A  press  item. 
Idem,  No.  630.131. 

A  Home-Owning  Drive — The  Hickory  Record.  University  Rural 
Social  Science  Files,  No.  630.191. 

Helping  the   Helpless— Winston-Salem  Journal.      Idem,   No.   630.131. 

Methods  of  Renting  Farms  in  Wisconsin — H.  C.  Taylor,  Bulletin 
198,  July,  1910.  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  University  of  Wis- 
consin, Madison. 

Progressive  Farmer,  Renters'  and  Landlords'  Special  annual  numbers. 

The  Illinois  Farm  Tenancy  Commission — The  Banker-Farmer.  Uni- 
versity Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  630.131. 

The  Plan  of  Moses — H.  J.  Walters  in  the  Kansas  Industrialist. 
Idem,  No.  630.131. 

Land  and  the  Leasing  System — Henry  Wallace.  The  Banker-Farmer, 
Champaign,  111.,  May,  1919. 

My  Neighbor's  Landmark — Frederick  Verinder.  Andrew  Melrose, 
London.  142  pp. 

The  ABC  of  the  Land  Question — J.  Dundas  White.  Publicity  Bureau 
Joseph  Fels  Fund,  Cincinnati.  42  pp. 

Privilege  and  Democracy  in  America — Frederick  C.  Howe.  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons,  New  York.  315  pp. 

Taxation  of  Land  Values — Yetta  Scheftel.  Houghton  Mifflin  Com- 
pany, Boston.  489  pp. 

The  Land  System  of  New  Zealand — Official  Year-Book,  Advance 
Sheets,  Part  III,  Wellington,  N.  Z. 

6 


82  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Newest  England  (New  Zealand)— Henry  Demorest  Lloyd.  Double- 
day,  Page  and  Company,  New  York.  387  pp. 

The  school  Capitol,  chapter  4 — Clyde  Kelly.  The  Mayflower  Press, 
Fittsburg. 

Home  and  Farm  Ownership  Committee 

1.  Constructive   Policies:     Myron   Green,    Chairman,   Union   County. 
Matthews. 

2.  The  Facts  about  Our  Landless,  Homeless  Multitudes:    W.  R.  Kirk- 
man,  Guilford  County,  Greensboro. 

3.  Country    Home    Comforts    and    Conveniences:     R.    R.    Hawfield, 
Union  County,  Matthews. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  "N.  C.  83 


CHAPTER  VII 

RACE  RELATIONSHIPS— THE  NEGRO'S  POINT  OF  VIEW 

A.  W.  STALEY,  GREENSBORO,  N.  C. 

The  problem  of  race  relationships  in  the  South  is  serious,  and  it 
must  be  seriously  considered. 

At  no  time  since  the  days  of  reconstruction  following  the  war  be- 
tween the  states  has  the  situation  been  more  perilous. 

The  Civil  War  suddenly  turned  slaves  into  free  citizens.  They  were 
not  ready  for  manhood  suffrage  and  full  citizenship,  and  for  the  most 
part  they  are  not  ready  today.  The  immediate  result  was  riotous 
misrule  in  every  Southern  state  by  negro  officeholders  and  by  the 
scalawags  and  carpet  baggers  elected  by  negro  voters.  The  stairways 
of  the  Capitol  still  show  the  scars  of  barrels  of  whisky  up-ended  by 
hand  to  refresh  the  black-and-tan  legislators  of  those  shameful  days. 
Thus  began  the  breach  of  relationship  between  the  races  in  the  South. 

This  period  of  negro  supremacy  was  ended  by  the  whites  with  means 
that  little  regarded  federal  law.  During  the  ensuing  half  century 
the  disfranchised  negroes  made  great  progress  in  schooling,  church 
organization,  and  property  ownership,  largely  with  the  help  of  South- 
ern white  people,  but  mainly  because  of  their  indifference  and  neglect. 
After  1890  the  negroes  made  long  strides  towards  higher  levels  of 
civilization.  They  began  to  realize  that  their  leader,  Booker  T. 
Washington,  was  leading  them  wisely  into  a  brighter  day.  He  refused 
to  bewilder  them  with  dreams  of  social  equality;  he  called  them  to 
work  out  their  own  salvation  with  thrift,  home  and  farm  ownership, 
and  personal  integrity.  And  always  everywhere  he  proclaimed  the 
fact  that  the  Southern  white  man  is  the  negro's  best  friend. 

But  the  World  War  brought  to  an  end  this  period  of  peaceful  self- 
conquest  by  the  negroes  of  the  South.  Another  breach  of  relationship 
has  occurred.  The  races  are  further  apart  than  ever,  and  race  rela- 
tionship is  once  more  a  problem  in  the  South,  and  it  is  a  more  serious 
problem  than  ever  before. 

When  the  negro  soldiers  went  to  France  they  were  again  put  upon 
a  social  plane  for  which  they  were  not  ready.  The  French  extended 
to  the  negro  soldiers  the  same  social  welcome  the  white  soldiers  re- 
ceived. The  negroes  married  French  girls.  Yes,  it  is  estimated  that 
between  one  and  two  thousand  such  marriages  took  place.  Though 
the  majority  of  the  marriages  were  among  the  bourgoisie  and  prole- 
tarian classes,  we  find  that  a  small  percentage  were  with  women  of 
culture  and  refinement.  This  social  uplift  of  the  negro  while  in  France 
has  aggravated  the  situation  at  home  until  it  has  reached  an  alarming 


84  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

stage.  But  in  North  Carolina  the  negro  is  gradually  coming  to  him- 
self in  sanity  and  safety  for  the  most  part — in  North  Carolina  more 
rapidly  than  in  any  other  Southern  state,  Virginia  alone  excepted. 

The  radical  element  is  fast  losing  leadership  in  this  state.  This 
fact  appeared  in  the  recent  inter-racial  conference  in  Raleigh.  Al- 
though this  conference  agreed  upon  a  creed  well  above  the  mass  level 
of  public  opinion  in  North  Carolina,  it  is  far  less  radical  than  that 
held  by  many  soldiers  upon  their  return  from  France. 

Once  more,  then,  the  negro  is  slowly  finding  himself.  And  again 
he  has  set  about  putting  himself  upon  a  friendly  working  basis  with 
the  white  man  in  the  South.  He  is  slowly  learning  that  the  average 
Southern  white  man  is  his  friend.  That  he  is  learning  this  truth  we 
can  see  by  looking  at  the  situation  from  the  point  of  view  of  several 
negro  leaders.  We  may  also  note  that  the  Southern  negro  is  adjusting 
himself  much  faster  than  the  Northern  negro.  This  is  clearly  apparent 
in  the  radical,  inflammatory  editorials  of  negro  publications  in  the 
North.  Let  us,  therefore,  take  a  glance  at  some  of  these  negro  publica- 
tions and  look  at  the  situation  through  the  Northern  negro's  eyes. 

The  program  of  the  Negro  National  Association  for  the  Advance 
ment  of  the  Negroes  is  very  different  from  the  attitude  of  negroes  in 
general  in  North  Carolina.  The  National  Association  wishes  to  make 
radical  changes  in  a  single  day.  Southern  negroes  for  the  most  part 
seek  for  more  gradual  changes. 


The  Northern  Negro's  Yiew 

On  the  14th  of  May,  1919,  the  National  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Negroes  had  a  membership  of  50,000.  At  a  meeting  in  New 
York  they  adopted  the  following  program:  (1)  An  increase  of  mem- 
bership to  100,000,  (2)  a  vote  for  every  negro  man  and  woman  on 
the  same  terms  as  white  men  and  women,  (3)  an  equal  chance  to 
acquire  the  kind  of  education  that  will  enable  negroes  everywhere 
to  use  their  votes  wisely,  (4)  a  fair  trial  in  the  courts  for  all  crimes 
of  which  he  is  accused,  by  judges  in  whose  election  he  has  participated 
without  discrimination  because  of  race,  (5)  the  right  to  sit  upon  the 
jury  which  passes  judgment  upon  him,  (6)  defense  against  lynching 
and  burning  at  the  hands  of  mobs,  (7)  equal  service  on  railroads  and 
other  public  carriers,  including  sleeping,  dining,  and  Pullman  cars, 
(8)  equal  right  to  the  use  of  public  parks,  libraries,  and  other  com- 
munity services  for  which  he  is  taxed,  (9)  an  equal  chance  to  gain 
a  livelihood  in  public  and  private  employment. 

From  what  I  have  read  it  seemed  to  be  the  purpose  of  this  asso- 
ciation to  push  toward  the  attainment  of  these  conditions  within  the 
next  few  years,  not  by  violent,  but  by  peaceful  means. 


WORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  85 

Groups  of  negroes  sometimes  pass  very  radical  resolutions,  urged 
thereto  by  agitators.  But  such  action  is  exceptional  and  is  not  ac- 
cepted by  the  large  body  of  the  race. 

The  following  quotation  is  from  an  extremely  radical  writer  in 
The  Negro  World,  a  weekly  publication:  "It  is  true  that  all  races 
look  forward  to  the  time  when  spears  shall  be  beaten  into  plowshares, 
but  until  that  time  arrives  it  devolves  upon  all  oppressed  peoples  to 
avail  themselves  of  every  weapon  that  may  be  effective  in  defeating 
the  fell  motives  of  their  oppressors.  In  a  world  of  wolves  one  should 
go  armed,  and  one  of  the  most  powerful  defensive  weapons  within  the 
reach  of  the  negroes  is  the  stand  for  social  equality."  This  is  an 
extreme  view  of  a  Northern  writer,  but  it  is,  in  my  opinion,  far  from 
the  general  view  of  the  negro  race  in  the  South. 

The  idea  that  a  Southern  negro  gets  from  the  public  prints  have, 
on  the  whole,  a  very  different  tone.  A  quotation  from  a  leading  negro 
minister  in  New  Orleans  will  give  you  a  fair  conception  of  what  the 
enlightened  portion  of  the  negro  race  is  contending  for  in  the  South: 

"I  say  to  my  people,  be  patient;  not  the  patience  of  insensible 
apathy,  nor  indeed  of  passive  docility,  but  of  active,  peaceful  effort, 
and  of  patient,  watchful  waiting.  The  possibility  of  rising  is  the 
inspiring  angel  of  hope,  and  the  possibility  is  ours.  The  race  is  climb- 
ing. Race  discrimination  here  and  there  is  beginning  to  betray  the 
relenting  face  of  self-condemning  shame.  Mob  violence  will  be  stopped. 
Be  patient.  Be  upright.  Be  in  all  things  honorable.  We  are  living  in 
the  early  morning  of  a  glorious  day  whose  moral  splendor  shall  illu- 
mine the  world.  But  we  must  labor  and  wait  until  the  noon  cometh. 
We  can't  go  to  it." 

Negro  Opinion  in  Carolina 

On  the  15th  of  September,  Dr.  E.  C.  Brooks,  our  State  Superintend- 
ent of  Public  Instruction,  issued  a  call  for  the  leading  negro  educators 
and  ministers  of  North  Carolina  to  meet  in  his  office  on  September  26, 
1919.  The  following  is  a  summary  of  a  Declaration  of  Principles 
which  the  negroes  of  this  meeting  sent  to  the  members  of  their  race 
in  the  state:  (1)  The  negroes  in  North  Carolina  were  never  more 
prosperous.  They  are  buying  farms  and  homes,  and  it  is  unfortunate 
that  outside  agitators  should  be  influencing  them  to  migrate  to  the 
North  and  West,  leaving  their  homes  in  North  Carolina.  (2)  Negro 
children  in  North  Carolina  have  had  poor  schools  and  school  facilities, 
but  a  change  is  coming.  One  town  is  spending  $100,000  for  negro 
schools.  Other  towns  are  planning  bond  issues.  New  schools  are 
going  up  in  rural  districts.  There  is  a  new  spirit  in  North  Carolina 
which  will  in  time  give  playgrounds  for  negro  children,  libraries, 
parks,  and  community  centers.  (3)  It  is  true  that  the  negro  does 
not  always  receive  justice,  but  many  times  this  happens  not  because 


86  STATE  EECONSTKUCTION  STUDIES 

his  color  is  black,  but  because  he  is  without  friends.  Some  reformation 
in  the  jury  system  of  North  Carolina  would  perhaps  make  for  more 
justice  in  the  courts.  Under  the  new  juvenile  court  law  the  superin- 
tendent of  public  welfare  is  to  keep  negro  children  out  of  court  and 
jail  as  well  as  white  children.  As  it  is  the  friendless  person  who 
suffers  when  caught  by  the  law,  it  should  be  the  purpose  of  the  negro 
to  win  friends  as  fast  as  he  can.  (4)  As  to  the  segregation  of  the 
races,  the  reason  that  the  prosperous  negro  tries  to  move  into  white 
sections  is  not  because  he  wishes  to  intrude  upon  white  neighbors, 
but  because  in  white  sections  he  has  better  streets,  better  lights, 
and  better  living  facilities  in  general.  The  poor  white  man  suffers 
much  the  same  inconvenience  as  the  negro,  but  when  a  white  man 
becomes  prosperous  he  can  move  into  a  district  with  good  facilities, 
but  the  negro  cannot  do  this;  therefore  the  public  should  provide 
equal  light,  water,  sewers,  sanitation,  and  public  facilities  in  general. 
(5)  The  agitators  who  advocate  social  equality  and  intermingling  of 
the  races  are  doing  great  harm  to  the  negroes.  The  negroes  of  North 
Carolina  are  not  thinking  of  social  equality.  As  to  lynching,  a  main 
thing  is  to  remove  the  cause.  The  patriotic  negro  stands  ready  to 
unite  with  the  white  man  in  safeguarding  both  white  and  negro 
women  and  to  remove  the  terror  that  hangs  over  the  South.  An  appeal 
to  force  is  wrong  in  a  clash  between  the  races.  Any  agitation  that 
will  stir  the  negro  to  violence  is  opposed  to  the  welfare  of  both  races. 

The  opinions  of  these  reasonable  negro  men  shows  that  there  is 
plentiful  ground  for  hope,  and  that  a  better  quality  of  friendship 
between  the  races  is  in  store  for  the  people  of  North  Carolina. — A.  W. 
Staley,  Chairman  Sub-Committe  on  the  Negro  View  of  Race  Relation- 
ships. 

January  26,  1920. 


THE  SOUTHERN  TIEW  OF  EACE  RELATIONSHIPS 

BRANTLEY  WOMBLE,  GARY,  N.  C. 

Realizing  that  the  negro  is  a  permanent  and  increasingly  impor- 
tant factor  in  the  development  of  our  national  life,  we  of  the  South 
should  bend  our  every  muscle,  as  it  were,  to  the  working  out  of  a 
program  whereby  our  Southland  will  be  able  to  make  the  most  effective 
use  of  this  backward  element  of  population.  The  negroes  can  be  of 
unlimited  service  in  the  development  of  the  South  if  we,  the  Southern 
white  people,  will  give  them  half  a  chance.  And  we  must  do  this, 
in  self-defense,  if  for  no  other  reason.  We  must  work  out  a  program 
whereby  both  races  can  come  together  and  work  together  for  the 
betterment  of  all  concerned. 

First  of  all,   what   is   the  average   Southern  white   man's  attitude 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  87 

toward  the  negro?  That  is  a  big  question,  and  some  of  you  may  not 
agree  with  my  answer.  But  if  we  are  ever  to  solve  this  problem  we 
must  first  see  ourselves  as  the  negro  sees  us.  Put  yourself  in  the 
negro's  place  for  a  moment.  You  are  a  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
you  pay  taxes  for  schools,  roads,  state  and  county  government;  by  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  you  are  supposed  to  have  equal 
opportunity  with  every  other  citizen,  but  how  often  in  walking  down 
the  streets  have  you  heard  this  remark,  "Negro,  get  out  of  my  way!" 
What  would  be  the  thoughts  in  your  mind  if  you  saw  one  of  your 
brothers  burning  at  the  stake  or  hanging  from  a  tree,  riddled  with 
bullets,  realizing  at  the  same  time  that  you  would  share  his  fate  if  you 
should  protest? 

Have  you  ever  been  in  a  Northern  city  and  heard  a  Southern  man 
remark,  "You  Northerners  don't  know  how  to  handle  the  negro.  Be- 
lieve me,  he  knows  his  place  in  the  South."  Do  you  ever  stop  to  think 
that  the  little  thoughtless  jests  we  throw  out  from  time  to  time  about 
the  negro  are  harbored  in  his  heart  and  resented  by  him?  No  wonder 
we  fail  to  see  the  smile  on  the  black  man's  face  that  fairly  ought  to 
be  there.  We  must  cease  to  bear  ourselves  so  loftily.  We  must  meet 
the  negro  half  way.  We  have  our  present  attitude  perhaps  because 
we  have  always  been  taught  to  regard  the  negro  as  something  to  be 
looked  down  upon.  The  average  white  man's  view  is  that  the  negro 
was  intended  by  his  Creator  to  be  a  servant;  that  the  negro  can  never 
rise  above  his  present  station  in  life.  And  at  the  same  time  some 
white  men  take  it  upon  themselves  to  punish  the  negro  in  a  fashion 
that  would  put  the  savages  of  olden  times  to  shame.  The  guillotine 
of  the  French  Revolution  has  nothing  over  us,  and  yet  we  are  sup- 
posed to  be  civilized. 

Lynching,  the  greatest  blot  on  the  South's  page  of  history,  is  in- 
creasing of  late.  Lynching  is  not  a  remedy  for  any  problem  whatso- 
ever. In  1917  there  were  38  lynchings;  in  1918  there  were  64;  and 
in  1919  there  were  83.  North  Carolina  has  had  fewer  lynchings  than 
most  Southern  states.  Only  Virginia  has  a  better  record,  but  any  at 
all  are  more  than  we  want.  Lynchings  formerly  were  provoked  by 
assaults  by  negroes  upon  white  women,  and  there  was  a  widespread 
disposition  to  excuse  the  mob.  Judge  Lynch  was  thus  encouraged  to 
extend  his  jurisdiction.  Statistics  for  recent  years  have  shown  that 
he  is  gradually  doing  that.  He  presumes  to  usurp  the  functions  of 
the  courts  in  the  punishment  of  all  kinds  and  degrees  of  crime  on 
part  of  both  blacks  and  whites.  He  no  longer  draws  the  color  line. 
Where  is  this  leading  us?  If  not  stopped,  mob  violence  will  destroy 
the  fabric  of  civilization  in  any  state.  The  most  serious  thing  in 
lynching  is  the  fact  that  the  law  itself  is  lynched. 

Most  of  us  care  little  about  the  home  life  of  the  negro.  All  the 
average  white  man  wants  of  the  negro  is  a  solid  day's  work,  and  there 


88  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

his  interest  ends.  We  rarely  ever  stop  to  think  that  the  negro  is 
human,  just  as  we  are  human.  We  pay  him  for  his  day's  or  his  week's 
work  and  consider  our  obligation  ended.  We  do  not  know,  neither  do 
we  care,  whether  or  not  he  has  a  sick  wife  or  children  at  home, 
whether  or  not  they  lack  food  or  fuel,  whether  or  not  the  disease  may 
be  a  hospital  case.  But  where  is  there  a  free  public  negro  hospital  in 
North  Carolina?  Even  the  free  wards  in  city  hospitals  are  fewer 
than  75  for  our  800,000  negroes.  The  schools  for  colored  children  are 
a  disgrace  to  North  Carolina. 

I  have  been  told  by  the  county  health  officer  of  Anson  County  that 
in  some  of  the  negro  schools  one  teacher  tries  to  teach  more  than  one 
hundred  boys  and  girls  of  all  ages  from  6  to  21.  With  such  con- 
ditions existing  in  the  schools  of  nearly  every  county  in  the  state, 
how  can  we  hope  to  improve  conditions  among  the  negroes?  In 
1917-18  the  white  race — 60  percent  of  our  population — received  thir- 
teen times  as  much  of  the  available  school  funds  as  the  negroes.  A 
policy  of  enlightened  selfishness  alone  should  cause  us  to  give  the 
black  man  better  educational  opportunities.  What  will  it  profit  us  to 
spend  millions  in  the  uplift  of  one  race  if  the  other  be  left  close  by 
its  side  in  ignorance  and  vice?  Separate  schools  like  separate  coaches 
are  a  necessity,  but  fair-minded  citizenship  in  the  state  should  exert 
itself  to  see  that  separation  does  not  work  injustice  and  hardship. 
We  must  realize  that  as  a  race  we  cannot  live  unto  ourselves  alone; 
that  if  the  black  man  sinks  we  cannot  rise.  No  social  regime  can 
long  endure  unless  it  is  founded  on  justice. 

When  you  talk  of  these  things  to  some  voters  they  frankly  say, 
"That's  all  right;  the  negro  hasn't  any  right  to  an  education  anyhow. 
What  he  gets  is  better  than  he  deserves." 

I  tell  you  the  only  way  to  remedy  these  conditions  is  to  educate  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  of  the  South,  both  black  and  white,  and  then 
when  we  seek  the  aid  and  cooperation  of  the  black  man  in  building 
up  a  stable  civilization  we  shall  be  able  to  prove  to  him  that  we  are 
honest  and  disinterested. 

Now,  what  should  be  our  attitude  toward  the  negro?  First  of  all 
we  should  cease  to  think  in  terms  of  self,  mainly  or  merely,  in  the 
way  our  grandfathers  thought.  Times  have  changed,  the  negro  is  no 
longer  a  slave,  and  we  must  realize  this.  Then  in  every  act  and 
relationship  of  life  we  must  prove  to  the  black  man  that  we  are  his 
friend,  that  we  are  striving  to  help  both  races  toward  better  mutual 
understanding.  The  experience  of  those  engaged  in  this  work  has 
been  that  they  are  regarded  by  the  negroes  first  with  fear  and  sus- 
picion, then  with  interest,  and  finally  with  appreciation,  trust  and 
such  eagerness  to  learn,  such  willingness  to  cooperate  as  they  never 
saw  before. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  ]ST.  C.  89 

I  was  reared  on  a  plantation  cultivated  by  negroes.  For  the  first 
thirteen  years  of  my  life  almost  my  sole  playmates  were  negroes,  and 
since  then  I  have  worked  with  negroes  both  in  the  South  and  North,  and 
I  have  yet  to  find  one  who  if  you  show  trust  in  him  will  betray  that 
trust.  The  negro  is  largely  what  you  expect  him  to  be.  If  you  are 
looking  only  for  faults  you  will  find  plenty  of  them,  but  if  you  look 
for  those  qualities  which  go  to  make  up  honest  men,  men  who  will 
not  fail  you,  these  also  will  be  found  in  the  negro. 

Things  We  Can  Do  to  Help 

1.  We  must  realize  that  the  great  mass  of  all  people,  both  black 
and  white,  must  be  adequately  educated.     Understanding  of  each  by 
each  must  be  developed. 

2.  Our   influence  and  our  wealth  must  be  spent  in  propaganda  to 
place  the  real  situation  before  all  the  people. 

3.  Everything  in  our  power  must  be  done  to  remove  the  blighting 
fear  of  injustice  and  mob  violence. 

4.  Every  possible  agency  must  be  enlisted  to  foster  the  spirit  of  jus- 
tice, fair  play  and  kindliness  in  all  dealings  by  members  of  one  race 
with  members  of  the  other. 

5.  Closer  cooperation  between  white  and  colored  citizens  should  be 
promoted  without  encouraging  any  violation  of  race  integrity. 

6.  We  must  safeguard  the  rights  of  the  negro,  (1)  to  better  housing 
and  home  life,   (2)  to  adequate  educational  and  recreational  facilities, 
(3)  to  fair  play  and  a  square  deal  always  and  everywhere  in  everything. 

7.  And  finally  we  must  use  our  influence  to  procure  such  legislation 
as  will  give  the  governor  authority  to  dismiss  a  sheriff  for  failure 
to  protect  a  prisoner  in  his  charge. 

Numbers  4,  5,  and  7  are  taken  from  the  program  of  the  Southern 
Sociological  Congress  of  October  8,  1919.  They  say,  further:  "We 
consider  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  race  relations  to  be  the  most 
delicate  and  difficult  single  task  that  confronts  the  American  people. 
We  believe  that  no  enduring  basis  of  good-will  between  the  white  and 
black  people  of  this  country  can  be  developed  except  on  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  justice,  cooperation,  and  racial  integrity.  The 
obligations  of  this  generation  to  posterity  demand  that  we  exert  our 
utmost  endeavor  to  preserve  the  purity  of  our  democratic  ideals  as 
expressed  in  the  American  Constitution,  as  well  as  the  purity  of  both 
races." 

In  speaking  of  the  Southern  white  man's  duty  to  the  negro,  Dr. 
W.  D.  Weatherford  says:  It  is  not  the  negro  who  is  on  trial  before 
the  world.  It  is  we,  the  white  men  of  the  South.  The  world  is  looking 
on  to  see  whether  we  shall  have  sufficient  courage,  sufficient  Christian 
spirit,  to  lend  a  helping  hand  to  the  race  that  is  down.  May  the  spirit 


90  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

of  the  Christ,  the  friend  of  men,  give  us  strength  to  stand  the  test. 

Now,  Carolina  men,  we  call  upon  you,  the  leaders  of  tomorrow,  to 
come  to  the  aid  of  the  state  you  love.  When  you  go  back  to  your 
homes  as  leaders  in  your  respective  communities,  remember  that  you 
owe  a  great  duty  to  your  country.  Strive  to  create  a  friendly  relation 
between  the  white  and  colored  people.  If  you  do  that  your  life  will 
have  been  worth  while,  and  your  state  will  be  a  better  place  in  which 
to  live  because  of  you. — Brantley  Womble,  Chairman  Sub-Committee 
on  The  Southern  View  of  Race  Relationships. 

January  26,  1920. 


THE  DETACHED  YIEW  OF  RACE  RELATIONSHIPS 

L.  J.  PHIPPS,  CHAPEL  HILL,  N.  C. 

In  studying  the  views  of  people  outside  the  South,  people  in  the 
North  and  in  Europe,  we  find  their  views  run  all  the  way  from  the 
extreme  view  of  the  French  to  a  milder  view,  a  view  approaching  that 
of  the  average  Southern  white  man  or  woman  of  education,  culture  and 
refinement. 

France  and  England  received  the  negro  soldiers  not  as  negroes, 
but  as  American  soldiers.  If  any  distinction  was  made  it  was  in 
favor  of  the  negro  soldiers.  A  large  number  of  negroes  married  French 
girls.  This  is  the  extreme  case. 

Mr.  H.  G.  Wells,  in  his  book,  The  Future  of  America,  holds  that 
the  negro  is  dependent  on  the  white  man  and  that  he  is  not  getting  a 
square  deal.  He  sees  the  negro  not  in  terms  of  the  negro  race,  but  in 
terms  of  the  human  race. 

We  find  that  occasional  families  in  the  North  receive  the  negro 
on  terms  of  social  equality.  He  is  permitted  to  enter  their  schools  and 
homes.  Intermarriage  is  allowed  in  a  state  or  two  North  and  East, 
nevertheless  such  marriages  are  extremely  rare. 

Ex-Fresident  Taft,  in  speaking  of  race  riots,  says  that  the  agitators 
should  be  suppressed,  that  the  editors  of  the  colored  press  should  be 
reasoned  with,  to  cease  publishing  articles,  however  true,  having  an 
exciting  effect. 

Bishop  Thirkield  of  the  Northern  Methodist  Church  goes  on  to  say: 
"The  negro  is  human.  Negro  nature  is  not  different  from  human 
nature.  We  should  recognize  his  rights  as  a  human  being.  A  good 
motto  and  a  fundamental  teaching  of  Christianity  that  cuts  straight 
down  through  color  and  creed  and  caste  and  which,  lived  up  to,  will 
cure  our  race  conflicts,  is  this:  All  that  is  human  should  care  for  all 
that  is  human." 

He  says  that  his  work  among  the  negroes  of  the  South  has  shown 
him  that  "enlightened  democracy  demands  for  all  people  three  things: 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  91 

"First,  protection  of  health,  property,  life,  and  morals. 

"Second,  the  enlargement  of  economic  opportunity:  efficiency,  not 
race  or  color,  the  test. 

"Third,  the  chance  for  development  through  education." 

He  thinks  that  in  the  South  the  practical  working  out  of  these 
principles  involves  four  main  considerations: 

"Better  houses  with  a  chance  for  raising  vegetables,  fruits,  flowers, 
chickens  and  pigs.  A  clapboard  cabin  in  a  barren  field,  without  win- 
dows, gives  no  sense  of  attachment.  Move?  Yes.  There's  nothing  to 
leave  behind. 

"Fair  wages  honestly  paid,  and  a  fair  division  of  crops  with  tenants. 

"Even-handed  justice  in  the  courts  and  protection  from  the  mob, 
for  which  many  leading  Southern  newspapers  are  now  pleading. 

"A  more  equitable  division  of  school  funds,  and  equal,  if  separate, 
traveling  accommodations  for  equal  charges." 

Perhaps  the  best  program  suggested  for  the  settlement  of  this  ques- 
tion was  issued  by  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in 
America  last  fall.  A  call  was  issued  to  representative  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  white  and  colored,  to  meet  in  New  York  City  for  a  full 
and  free  discussion  of  the  racial  situation.  This  committee  viewed  the 
situation  as  seen  by  both  races.  It  found  that  the  present  situation 
is  a  challenge  to  the  churches  charged  with  the  promotion  of  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  that  this  nation  in  adjusting  this  situation  has  to 
justify  itself  before  the  peoples  of  the  world,  that  our  settlement  of 
this  question  will  in  a  large  measure  influence  the  settlement  of  race 
relations  in  other  parts  of  the  world. 

The  Council  adopted  the  following  Constructive  Program  for  Just 
Inter-Racial  Relations: 

1.  The    government,    local,    state   and    national,    should    impartially 
guarantee  to  all   classes  security  of  life  and  of  property.     Mob  vio- 
lence is  becoming  a  crowd  habit.     When  life  and  property  are  ruth- 
lessly taken,  when  men  and  women  are  lynched  with  no  protection 
from  officers  or  courts,  law  and  order  are  trampled  under  foot.     We 
call  upon  the  pulpit,  the  press,  and  all  good  people  to  create  a  public 
sentiment  that  will  support  necessary  legislation  for  the  enforcement 
of  existing  laws,  that  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  may  be 
equally  assured  to  all  classes. 

2.  The   negro   should   have   economic  justice,   equal   opportunity   to 
get  and  hold  work  on  the  same  terms  as  other  men,  with  equal  pay 
for  equal  work,  and  with  fair  working  and  living  conditions.     The 
entrance  of  large  numbers  of  negroes  into  the  various  industries  em- 
phasizes the  necessity  of  an  immediate  amicable  adjustment  of  rela- 
tions with  employers  and  fellow-workers. 

3.  We  call  upon  men  and  women  everywhere  to  protect  the  sanctity  of 
home  and  womanhood.     We  record  with  satisfaction  the  growing  en- 


92  STATE  KECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

listment  of  negro  leaders  in  a  program  of  education  and  Christianiza- 
tion  such  as  tends  to  prevent  crimes  that  provoke  mob  violence.  The 
home  of  the  negro  should  receive  the  same  measure  of  respect  and  pro- 
tection as  that  of  other  Americans,  and  the  sanctity  of  his  home  re- 
lations should  be  safeguarded  in  every  possible  way.  Swift  and 
impartial  action  of  the  law  should  strike  the  violator  of  the  sanctity 
of  any  home,  white  or  black. 

4.  We   recognize   as  fundamental   to   the   welfare   and   efficiency   of 
society  that  adequate   recreational   provisions   be   made   available  for 
negro  citizens. 

5.  We   strongly  endorse  the  plea  of  the  negro  for   equal  traveling 
accommodations  for  equal  charges. 

6.  Adequate    educational    facilities    for    negro    children    and    youth 
should   be   provided   not   only   as   a   national   obligation,   but   also   as 
a  necessity  for  national  welfare.    We  emphasize  the  urgency  of  giving 
to  the  negro  his  full  share  of  local  and  national  funds. 

7.  Qualifications  for  franchise   should   be  administered   irrespective 
of  race,  creed,  or  color. 

8.  Closer  cooperation  between  the  races  should  be  promoted  by  or- 
ganizing local  committees  of  white  and  colored  people  in  towns  and 
communities  for  the  consideration  of  inter-racial  welfare.     All  possi- 
ble agencies  should  be  enlisted  in  fostering  a  spirit  of  justice  and  of 
goodwill  in  the  relations  of  one  race  to  the  other.     We  recommend 
that  the  governor  of  each  state  appoint  a  standing  committee  for  the 
careful  study  of  the  causes  underlying  race  friction  with  a  view  to 
their  removal  and  that  Congress  be  requested,  through  a  non-partisan 
committee,   to  investigate   the   disturbed   and   threatening   inter-racial 
situation  throughout  the  nation. 

So  we  see  that  this  outside  viewpoint  runs  anywhere  from  a  view 
so  detached  that  it  would  set  the  negro  upon  an  equal  level  in  every 
way  with  the  white  man  to  the  view  of  Ex-President  Taft,  which 
would  suppress  Red  agitation  among  the  negroes. 

We  see  that  people  North  and  West  are  adjusting  their  views  to  the 
primary  facts  of  race  relations,  race  prejudice,  and  the  necessity  for 
race  adjustment,  either  because  they  have  a  keener  realization  of  the 
situation  in  the  South,  or  because  of  closer  acquaintance  with  negro 
colonies  and  their  problems  in  Northern  and  Western  cities. 

The  detached  view  is  coming  to  hold  that  the  negro  problem  is  a 
problem  and  not  a  theory.  We  of  the  South  should  cherish  open- 
mindedness,  and  generous  willingness  to  consider  the  sincere  views 
of  lovers  of  humanity  and  righteousness  everywhere.  In  whatever 
matter  we  are  wrong  we  must  get  right  both  in  attitudes  and  actions 
affecting  our  relationship  to  the  negroes  of  the  South. 

And  the  same  thing  applies  to  the  people  of  the  North  and  West 
in  their  dealing  with  this  backward,  disadvantaged  class  of  citizens. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  "N.  C.  93 

The  rapidly  increasing  multitudes  of  negroes  in  Washington,  Phila- 
delphia, New  York,  Chicago,  and  Detroit  are  already  giving  Northern 
people  a  chance  to  try  out  their  own  qualities  of  mind  and  temper 
toward  the  negro  race. — L.  J.  Phipps,  Chairman  Sub-Committee  on 
The  Detached  View  of  Race  Relationships. 
January  26,  1920. 


RACE  RELATIONSHIPS— COMMITTEE  CONCLUSIONS 

G.  D.  CRAWFORD,  CORNELIA,  GA. 

In  the  development  of  the  American  negro  there  have  been  three 
critical  periods:  (1)  his  change  from  African  savagery  to  American 
civilization,  (2)  his  transition  from  slavery  to  freedom,  and  (3)  the 
situation  brought  about  by  the  recent  world  war.  In  the  first  period 
the  negro  was  taken  out  of  the  jungles  of  Africa  and  placed  among 
a  highly  civilized  people.  The  period  following  was  an  educational 
experience  for  the  black  man.  Coming  into  close  contact  with  the 
white  man  he  made  great  progress  in  the  earlier  stages  of  civiliza- 
tion. 

The  second  landmark  in  the  history  of  the  negro  was  set  up  when 
he  was  given  his  freedom.  The  attending  circumstances  were  ex- 
tremely unfortunate.  In  the  artificial  position  of  ruler  over  his  former 
master  the  negro  naturally  misused  the  power  given  him.  In  no 
sense  was  he  the  superior  of  the  Southern  white  man,  and  the  control 
given  him  was  a  blunder  productive  of  serious  and  regretful  results. 
The  period  of  reconstruction  in  the  South  brought  about  regrettable 
frictions.  Finally  the  Southern  whites  were  reenfranchised  and  a 
normal  equilibrium  was  again  established. 

Then,  under  the  leadership  of  such  men  as  Booker  T.  Washington, 
the  negro  race  began  to  adjust  itself  to  new  conditions,  and  the  race 
made  great  progress  along  practical  lines. 

The  negro  was  making  slow  but  steady  steps  forward  when  he 
came  into  the  third  critical  period  of  his  history — namely,  the  world 
war.  During  the  war  there  was  no  time  for  racial  distinctions.  In 
France  negro  troops  were  received  as  Americans  and  were  treated 
just  as  the  whites  were  treated  by  the  F'rench.  Although  the  attitude 
of  American  whites  toward  the  negro  did  not  materially  change,  it 
was  but  natural  that  the  negro  should  return  to  his  home  in  the  South 
with  new  notions  of  social  relationships.  It  is  well  attested  that  there 
were  attempts  on  part  of  agitators,  both  black  and  white,  to  bring 
about  a  general  uprising  of  the  negroes.  This  movement,  however, 
was  ignored  by  the  vast  majority  of  blacks.  Nevertheless,  agitations 
and  new  notions  did  have  a  very  decided  effect  upon  the  problem  of 
race  relationships.  The  continuity  of  the  development  of  the  negro 


94  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

race  has  been  broken.  As  a  result  the  situation  is  more  aggravated 
today  than  it  has  been  at  any  time  during  the  last  two  or  three  dec- 
ades, not  only  in  the  South  but  in  the  whole  United  States. 

Consequently  it  was  imperative  for  one  of  the  committees  of  the 
Reconstruction  Commission  recently  appointed  by  Governor  Bickett 
to  consider  this  problem  in  North  Carolina. 

In  presenting  this  subject  our  committee  has  dealt  with  it  from 
three  separate  standpoints — from  the  standpoint  of  the  negro  himself, 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  Southern  white  man,  and  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  outsider.  We  shall  close  the  presentation  with  a  sum- 
mary of  the  findings  of  the  committee. 

Summary  of  Committee  Findings 

We  have  considered  race  relationships  in  the  South  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  negro,  of  the  Southern  white  man,  and  of  the  outsider. 
It  now  remains  for  us  to  choose  the  right  in  each  case  as  we  see  it, 
and  present  a  policy  of  procedure. 

1.  We  believe  that  the  solution  of  this  problem  in  the   South   lies 
in  the  hands  of  the  Southern  people  of  both  races  working  together 
with  sympathetic  common  understanding,   and  in  a  spirit  of  mutual 
helpfulness.     In  our  opinion  the   Southern  white  man,  occupying  as 
he  does  the  position   of  strategic   superiority,   holds  the   key   to   the 
situation.    As  Governor  T.  W.  Bickett  said  at  a  meeting  last  week  at 
Tuskeegee,    Ala.,    "The    responsibility    of    developing    the    negro    race 
therefore  rests  upon  the   shoulders  of  the  white  man  of  the  South. 
He  alone  can  direct  the  working  out  of  this  problem." 

2.  The    committee    does    not    favor    social    equality.      The   thinking 
negroes  themselves  do  not  ask  it. 

3.  We  believe  that  both  races  should  maintain  their  integrity  and 
racial  self-respect.    Amalgamation  will  not  help  in  the  solution  of  the 
present   perplexity. 

4.  We  hold  that  the  task  of  the  negro  is  to  better  his  condition  as  a 
race,  and  that  his  development,  like  that  of  every  other  race,  inevitably 
must  begin  at  the  bottom.    And  also,  that  his  gains  will  be  made  slowly 
throughout  long  periods  of  time.     His  heaven  cannot  be  reached  at 
a  single  bound.    And  nobody  realized  this  fundamental  fact  any  better 
than  Booker  T.  Washington,  whose  constant  advice  to  his  race  em- 
bodied imperishable  wisdom. 

He  taught  his  people  to  become  efficient  in  industries  of  every  sort, 
and  to  be  set  upon  home  and  farm  ownership,  sobriety,  integrity,  and 
law  abidingness.  The  negro  must  learn  day  by  day  to  take  the  next 
step  forward  in  steady  gaited  ways  of  patience  and  wisdom;  and  it 
is  supremely  important  for  both  races  to  learn  that  nothing  can  be 
gained  by  violence. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  95 

5.  If  you  ask  for  a  single  word  to  explain  the  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem of  race  relationships  we  would  give  you  the  word  justice.  In 
the  past  the  negro  has  not  always  had  justice  at  the  hands  of  the 
whites.  He  must  have  justice.  He  deserves  it  and  fairness  demands 
it.  Above  all  things  let  us  be  just  in  our  relation  to  the  negro.  We 
have  been  kind  to  him,  but  kindness  alone  is  not  enough.  Let  im- 
partial and  unbiased  justice  be  given  him. 

The  courts  must  be  just.  A  negro  should  have  just  as  great  chance 
before  the  law  as  the  white  man.  In  every  instance  a  case  must  be 
tried  on  its  merits  and  on  its  merits  alone.  Lynching  is  unfair  and 
brutal,  and  should  be  absolutely  abolished. 

The  negro  must  receive  justice  in  educational  matters.  The  facili- 
ties furnished  his  children  should  be  equal  to  those  enjoyed  by  the 
white  children.  There  is  great  need  for  more  negro  schools  and 
better  teachers  in  these  schools. 

We  do  not  claim  that  the  negro  should  be  placed  in  the  same  rail- 
way coach  with  the  whites,  but  his  coach  should  be  equally  com- 
fortable and  sanitary. 

Fairness  demands  that  he  be  given  equal  opportunity  to  raise  his 
standard  of  living.  He  ought  to  receive  equal  service  in  streets, 
lights,  sewers,  and  the  like,  in  every  city. 

In  our  opinion  the  great  need  is  to  render  justice  to  all — to  the  negro 
as  well  as  the  white.  If  this  be  done,  much  of  race  animosity  will 
disappear,  and  the  negro  will  receive  a  great  impetus  in  his  struggle 
to  better  his  race. 

To  bring  about  justice  to  the  negro  it  is  necessary  for  all  concerned 
to  face  the  question  squarely,  with  full  knowledge  of  its  significance, 
and  with  widespread  willingness  on  our  part  to  share  and  bear  and 
forbear. 

In  the  last  analysis,  the  problem  can  be  solved  only  in  terms  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  the  Golden  Rule.  Applied  Christianity  alone 
can  bring  us  to  the  goal  toward  which  we  are  striving. — G.  D.  Craw- 
ford, Chairman  Committee  on  Race  Relationships. 

January  26,  1920. 


RACE  RELATIONSHIPS  STUDIES 

Outline 

1.  The   program   of  the   Southern   Sociological   Conference   and   the 
Congress  of  Governors — the  Southern  view. 

2.  The  program  of  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ 
in  America — the  detached  view. 

3.  The  program  of  the  National  Association  for  Negro  Advancement 
— the  negro  view. 


96  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Bibliography 

A  brief  bibliography  of  selected  books,  bulletins,  and  clippings  on 
Race  Antagonisms,  for  the  Carolina  Club  Committee  on  Race  Rela- 
tionships. This  material  is  already  at  hand  in  the  seminar  room 
of  the  department  of  rural  social  science  at  the  University  of  North 
Carolina. 

1.  Race  Program  of  the  Southern  Sociological  Conference  and  the 
Governors'  Congress  at  Salt  Lake  City — University  News  Letter,  Vol. 
V,  No.  46. 

2.  Race  Program  of  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ 
in  America— University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  325.26. 

3.  Negro  Race  Problem. 

Program  of  the  National  Association  for  Negro  Advancement — Uni- 
versity Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  325.26. 

A  Declaration  of  Principles,  by  Representative  Negroes  of  North 
Carolina,  Raleigh,  September  26,  1919;  newspaper  clippings  concern- 
ing the  Raleigh  conference — University  Rural  Social  Science  Files, 
No.  325.26.  11  pp. 

4.  The  Subject  in  General. 

The  Human  Way,  Race  Studies  of  the  Southern  Sociological  Con- 
gress in  Atlanta— Edited  by  James  E.  McCulloch,  Nashville,  Tenn. 
146  pp. 

Present  Forces  in  Negro  Progress — W.  D.  Weatherford.  Association 
Press,  124  East  Twenty-eighth  Street,  New  York.  191  pp. 

Negro  Life  in  the  South — W.  D.  Weatherford.  Association  Press, 
New  York.  181  pp. 

Negro  Migration  in  1916-17 — Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Depart- 
ment of  Labor,  Division  of  Negro  Economics,  Washington,  D.  C. 
158  pp. 

Bulletins  of  the  Committee  on  Inter-Racial  Cooperation — Y.  M.  C.  A. 
Building,  Atlanta,  Ga. 

Migration  of  Negroes  into  Northern  Cities — George  E.  Haynes. 
National  Conference  of  Social  Work,  315  Plymouth  Court,  Chicago. 
4  pp. 

Negroes  Move  North — George  E.  Haynes.  Reprint  from  The  Survey, 
May  4,  1918,  112  East  Nineteenth  Street,  New  York.  8  pp. 

A  Contribution  to  Democracy:  a  Record  of  Race  Cooperation — Bul- 
letin of  the  National  Urban  League,  January,  1919,  Fisk  University, 
Nashville,  Tenn.  23  pp. 

The  South's  Responsibility  for  Negro  Crime — Bishop  Gailor.  Fisk 
University  News,  March,  1917,  Nashville,  Tenn. 

Bishop  Thirkield's  Race  Program — The  World  Outlook  for  October, 
1919.  University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  325.26. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  !NT.  C.  97 

Open  Letters  on  Race  Relationships,  by  the  University  Commission 
on  Southern  Race  Problems — University  Rural  Social  Science  Piles, 
No.  312.4.  Southern  University  Commission  on  Race  Questions,  Min- 
utes. 72  pp;  Open  Letters,  pp.  45-73 — Col.  Wm.  M.  Hunley,  Commission 
Secretary,  Lexington,  Va. 

Rising  Standards  in  the  Treatment  of  Negroes — Hastings  H.  Hart. 
Proceedings  of  the  Southern  Sociological  Congress,  Dr.  J.  E.  McCul- 
loch,  Secretary,  Nashville,  Tenn. 

Race  Riots — Editorial,  Chicago  Tribune.  University  Rural  Social 
Science  Files,  No.  325.26. 

A  Negro  Preacher's  Wisdom — University  News  Letter,  Vol.  V,  No.  42. 

Lynching:  Removing  Its  Causes — W.  D.  Weatherford.  J.  E.  Mc- 
Culloch,  Secretary  Southern  Sociological  Congress,  Nashville,  Tenn. 

Lynching:  A  National  Menace.  The  White  South's  Protest  Against 
— James  E.  Gregg.  Southern  Workman,  Hampton,  Va. 

Lynching  Record  in  1919 — University  Rural  Science  Piles,  No.  325.26. 
Newspaper  clippings,  Ibid. 

Race  Riot  Lessons — William  Howard  Taft,  press  clipping,  Phila- 
delphia Public  Ledger.  University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No. 
312.4. 

Secretary  Daniels  Praises  the  Negro  Soldiers — Raleigh  News  and 
Observer,  December  20,  1919. 

Race  Relationships  Committee 

1.  Committee   Collaborator:     G.    D.    Crawford,    Chairman,    Cornelia, 
Georgia. 

2.  Negro  View:    A.  W.  Staley,  Guilford  County,  Greensboro. 

3.  Southern  View:    W.  B.  Womble,  Wake  County,  Gary. 

4.  Detached  View:    L.  J.  Phipps,  Orange  County,  Chapel  Hill. 


98  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 


CHAPTER  VIII 

CHILD  WELFARE  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 

C.  T.  BOYD,  GASTONIA,  N.  C. 

Child  welfare  is  one  of  the  fundamental  problems  of  this  and  every 
other  state.  The  children  of  today  will  constitute  the  citizenship  of 
tomorrow,  and  a  grave  responsibility  rests  upon  the  state  to  make 
such  provision  for  their  welfare  as  will  enable  them  to  assume  the 
positions  they  are  destined  to  fill.  The  people  of  North  Carolina  are 
moving  tardily  but  certainly  into  a  recognition  of  the  importance  and 
the  magnitude  of  the  task.  North  Carolina  has  always  had  the  repu- 
tation of  being  slow  to  adopt  progressive  measures.  The  Rip  Van 
Winkle  of  States  is  what  she  was  dubbed  by  one  of  her  own  devoted 
sons.  But  she  has  waked  up  within  the  last  few  years.  Since  1915 
her  common  school  fund  for  annual  support  has  moved  up  from  six 
to  twelve  million  dollars,  and  her  common  school  properties  from 
twelve  to  twenty-four  million  dollars.  We  now  have  medical  in- 
spection for  children,  and  free  dental  clinics  in  the  schools  of  the 
state;  adenoid  and  tonsils  clinics,  and  the  like.  And  we  have  a  State 
Child  Welfare  Commission,  but  as  yet  we  have  no  Children's  Legis- 
lative Code  Commission  as  in  Minnesota,  Kansas,  Missouri,  Con- 
necticut and  other  states.  Georgia  and  Virginia  are  moving  toward  the 
appointment  of  such  commissions. 

Social  legislation  in  behalf  of  children  began  with  the  General 
Assembly  of  1917. 

A  majority  of  the  legislative  acts  concerning  child  welfare  in  North 
Carolina  were  passed  by  the  1917  and  1919  legislatures,  during  the 
remarkable  administration  of  Governor  T.  W.  Bickett.  The  1919 
Assembly  has  to  its  credit  thirty-five  social  welfare  laws,  and  directly 
or  indirectly  they  all  concern  the  well-being  of  children.  We  now 
have  county  welfare  boards  and  superintendents  in  every  county,  a 
juvenile  delinquency  law,  a  compulsory  education  law,  a  child  labor 
law,  and  excellent  health  laws.  The  Assemblies  of  1917  and  1919 
were  epoch-making  bodies.  We  now  have  much  or  most  of  the 
legislation  we  needed.  The  urgent  necessity  we  now  face  is  the 
creation  of  enlightened  public  sentiment  in  support  of  this  legislation. 
Without  it  we  are  always  in  danger  of  reverting  to  primitive  types 
of  thinking  about  child  welfare  ideals,  measures,  and  methods. 

Having  reviewed  the  chief  matters  of  child  welfare  legislation,  let 
us  now  consider  the  agencies  at  work  in  behalf  of  children  in  North 
Carolina.  We  have  a  state-wide  system  of  public  welfare  machinery. 
At  the  head  of  the  system  is  the  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Public 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  99 

Welfare,  which  exercises  a  general  supervision  over  all  welfare  in- 
stitutions and  work  in  the  state.  Associated  with  this  board  is  the 
Infant  Welfare  Bureau,  headed  by  Mrs.  Clarence  A.  Johnson.  Then 
there  is  in  every  county  a  board  of  charities  and  public  welfare,  con- 
sisting of  three  persons  who  serve  without  pay.  Every  county  has 
also  a  Superintendent  of  Public  Welfare,  who  has  active  charge  of  the 
welfare  concerns  of  his  county.  In  counties  of  less  than  25,000  in- 
habitants the  County  School  Superintendent  may  hold  this  position. 
There  are  sixty  such  counties  in  the  state.  The  County  Superintendent 
of  Public  Welfare  is  a  salaried  officer  and  holds  a  very  responsible 
position.  Public  welfare  in  North  Carolina,  it  is  well  to  remember, 
covers  every  social  concern  except  public  education  and  public  health, 
which  belong  to  the  special  state  departments  of  education  and  health. 

The  State  Public  Welfare  Board  has  responsible  oversight  of  our 
defective,  delinquent,  and  dependent  children.  The  state  maintains 
four  institutions  for  defective  children,  one  institution  for  delinquent 
white  boys  and  one  for  delinquent  white  girls.  A  reformatory  for 
negro  children  has  just  been  created  by  our  legislature.  There  are 
two  county  institutions  for  delinquent  boys,  under  the  care  of  county 
welfare  boards.  There  are  also  21  orphanages  in  the  state,  two  of 
which  receive  state  aid.  The  others  are  maintained  by  churches, 
fraternal  orders,  etc.  We  have  four  rescue  homes  for  unfortunate  girls. 
The  North  Carolina  Children's  Home  Society  at  Greensboro  is  the 
main  child-placing  agency  of  the  state.  There  is  in  process  of  con- 
struction at  Gastonia  the  State  Orthopaedic  Hospital  for  crippled 
children.  This  institution  will  fill  a  long-felt  need. 

These  agencies  are  supplemented  in  their  work  by  the  State  Board 
of  Health.  North  Carolina  has  the  best  law  in  the  United  States  for 
the  medical  and  dental  inspection  of  school  children.  This  act  was 
passed  by  the  1919  Assembly,  and  already  more  than  50,000  children 
have  received  free  medical  inspection  and  dental  treatment  under  its 
provisions. 

From  the  foregoing  facts  it  can  be  seen  that  child  welfare  work  in 
North  Carolina  is  now  fairly  well  organized.  We  have  state  and 
county  boards  of  public  welfare.  We  have  homes  and  institutions  for 
the  care  of  defective,  delinquent,  and  dependent  children.  We  have 
excellent  health  laws  for  school  children.  And  we  have  a  compulsory 
school  law,  a  child-labor  law,  and  a  juvenile  delinquency  law.  On  first 
glance,  this  array  of  state  legislation,  agencies,  and  activities  for  the 
promotion  of  child  welfare  work  would  seem  to  be  sufficient.  But  a 
great  deal  yet  remains  to  be  done.  Take,  for  example,  the  question 
of  reform  schools.  We  can  truthfully  tell  an  outsider  that  we  have 
reform  schools  in  North  Carolina;  yet  the  facilities  are  by  no  means 
adequate.  There  are  several  pressing  needs  now  before  us,  and  on 
the  basis  of  these  needs  the  committee  has  three  recommendations  to 


100          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

make.  We  shall  not  here  discuss  the  need  for  more  reform  schools  for 
both  sexes  and  colors,  as  that  subject  will  be  treated  by  the  next 
speaker.  These  recommendations  are: 

Program  Proposals 

1.  More  adequate  facilities  for  the  care  of  the  feeble-minded  children. 

2.  A  more  adequate  child-placing  agency. 

3.  A  system  of  mothers'  pensions  wisely  conditioned. 
Let  us  briefly  consider  each  of  these  propositions. 

First,  more  adequate  facilities  for  the  care  of  feeble-minded  children. 
At  present  there  is  only  one  such  school  in  the  state — the  Caswell 
Training  School  at  Kinston,  with  room  for  about  200  children.  On 
the  basis  of  the  most  conservative  estimate,  there  are  3,500  feeble- 
minded children  in  the  state,  and  yet  we  can  take  care  of  only  about 
200  of  these.  This  school  is  for  white  children;  feeble-minded  children 
of  the  colored  race  are  not  yet  provided  for  in  North  Carolina. 

Second,  a  more  adequate  child-placing  agency.  The  North  Carolina 
Children's  Home  Society  at  Greensboro  is  doing  good  work,  but  it  is 
not  prepared  to  meet  the  needs  and  solve  the  problems  of  relaying 
children  into  good  homes.  North  Carolina  should  have  a  child-placing 
agency  supported  on  a  fifty-fifty  basis  by  state  and  by  private  funds. 
The  tasks  of  such  an  agency  would  be  (1)  to  find  proper  homes  for 
homeless  children,  (2)  to  place  orphan  children  or  neglected  children 
in  such  homes,  and  (3)  to  maintain  an  efficient  system  of  inspection 
to  see  that  these  children  receive  the  benefits  of  good  home  training. 
This  side  of  child  welfare  work  should  be  stressed,  the  purpose  being 
to  place  as  many  homeless  children  as  possible  in  good  homes,  to  pre- 
vent the  overcrowding  of  our  orphanages,  and  to  take  care  of  the 
5,000  or  more  known  orphans  who  cannot  now  be  received  in  our  21 
orphan  homes.  It  seems  indeed  the  only  practicable  way  of  attacking 
the  enormous  problem  of  bereft  children. 

Third,  a  system  of  mothers'  pensions  wisely  conditioned.  By  this  we 
mean  that  a  capable  woman  of  good  character,  whose  husband  is  dead 
or  confined  in  a  prison  or  an  asylum,  who  has  children  to  support  and 
who  is  not  able  to  support  them  on  her  meager  earnings,  should  receive 
from  the  state  a  pension  which  would  enable  her  to  keep  her  children 
at  home  and  to  rear  them  under  salutary  home  influences.  Forty 
states  of  the  Union  provide  mothers'  pensions,  and  practically  all  the 
rest  are  considering  the  matter.  The  amount  of  the  pensions  varies  in 
different  states,  and  we  are  not  now  prepared  to  say  what  would  con- 
stitute a  fair  pension.  As  for  the  length  of  time  a  mother  should 
draw  such  a  pension,  we  believe  it  should  be  until  the  child  is  16 
years  of  age. 

The  advantages  of  a  system  of  mothers'  pensions  are  obvious.  It 
provides  home  training  for  children  that  would  otherwise  be  thrown 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  1ST.  C.  101 

upon  charity  for  support  or  upon  some  state  or  private  child-caring 
institutions.  Let  the  state  inaugurate  such  a  system  and  the  need  for 
reform  schools  and  orphanages  will  be  greatly  lessened.  The  family 
circle  will  not  be  broken  up.  It  is  cheaper  in  the  end,  both  from  a 
financial  standpoint  and  from  the  standpoint  of  social  welfare.  The 
committee  believes  that  if  provision  can  be  made  for  carrying  out 
these  three  recommendations  the  problem  of  child  welfare  in  North 
Carolina  will  be  greatly  lightened. — C.  T.  Boyd,  Chairman  Sub-Com- 
mittee on  Child  Welfare. 
February  9,  1920. 


CHILD  DELINQUENCY  AND  THE  JUVENILE  COURT 

W.  H.  BOBBITT,  STATESVILLE,  N.  C. 

The  child  is  father  to  the  man.  The  delinquent  child  is  father  to 
the  seasoned  criminal. 

The  state  of  North  Carolina  is  called  upon  to  deal  in  a  human  way 
with  wild,  lawless,  and  immoral  children.  For  the  most  part  they  are 
children  who  have  been  denied  that  to  which  every  child  is  innately 
entitled — a  home  and  the  rearing  care  of  wise  and  loving  parents.  The 
problem  must  be  met,  for  thousands  of  children  give  daily  evidence 
of  deficient  or  improper  or  vicious  home  training. 

A  forward  stride  was  made  in  behalf  of  the  juvenile  delinquents  of 
the  state  when  the  1919  legislature  passed  the  law  entitled  "An  Act  to 
Create  Juvenile  Courts  in  North  Carolina."  Under  this  wise  and  com- 
prehensive law  a  juvenile  court  was  created  in  each  county  of  North 
Carolina,  and  in  every  city  of  10,000  inhabitants  or  more.  The  clerks 
of  court  under  this  law  are  juvenile  court  judges.  In  the  larger  cities 
these  may  be  specially  designated.  The  probation  officers  are  the  county 
welfare  superintendents.  A  delinquent  child  appearing  before  this 
court  is  either  placed  on  probation,  detained  by  order  of  the  court, 
or  assigned  to  a  state  institution.  But  no  child  is  ever  brought  into 
this  court  if  his  case  can  be  adjusted  safely  outside  the  court.  The 
juvenile  court  is  a  last  resort  in  child  welfare  work.  Since  this  law 
became  operative  its  work  has  been  highly  successful.  During  the 
first  four  months  nearly  a  thousand  children  came  under  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  juvenile  courts  of  North  Carolina.  Our  juvenile  court  law 
is  the  first  of  a  mandatory  nature  passed  by  any  state  in  the  Union. 
But  in  dealing  with  our  delinquents  we  have  made  only  the  first 
move.  The  wayward  child  is  judged,  and  then  our  system  runs  into 
a  blind  alley  for  lack  of  detention  homes  and  reformatory  school 
facilities. 

Your  committee  therefore  makes  the  following  recommendations,  the 
needs  for  which  are  hereinafter  explained  and  emphasized. 


•      ^J    •*  *  -a**!*** 

102  STATE  KECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 


Program  Proposals 

1.  The  creation  in  connection  with  each  juvenile  court  of  a  deten- 
tion home,  where  delinquent  children  may  be  temporarily  cared  for 
wisely  and  safely. 

2.  The  immediate  enlargement  of  the  facilities  of  the  Jackson  Train- 
ing  School  and  of  Samarcand  Manor. 

3.  The  regional  establishment  of  training  schools  for  wayward  chil- 
dren of  each  race  and  sex. 

1.  Detention  Homes. 

When  delinquent  children  are  apprehended  there  is  oftentimes  a 
period  preceding  the  final  judgment  of  the  court,  and  in  some  cases 
a  period  thereafter,  before  certain  children  can  enter  state  institutions, 
in  which  these  children  are  held  in  waiting.  It  is  unthinkable  to  fair- 
minded  and  big-hearted  men  that  these  young  children  should  be  cast 
into  jails  to  associate  with  seasoned  criminals,  although  for  many 
years  this  has  happened  in  North  Carolina.  Hence,  your  committee 
recommends,  not  that  there  shall  be  erected  a  building  in  each  county 
to  be  known  as  the  County  Detention  Home,  but  that  each  county, 
through  its  juvenile  court,  shall  arrange  to  place  these  delinquent, 
but  potentially  good,  children  in  homes  or  places  where  the  environ- 
ment will  tend  to  uplift  rather  than  to  crush  their  finer  selves. 

2.  The  Enlargement  of  the  Facilities  of  the  Jackson  Training  School 
and  of  the  Samarcand  Manor. 

The  Jackson  Training  School  for  ten  years  has  been  reclaiming  the 
lives  of  North  Carolina  boys.  Its  record  is  one  of  wonderful  Christian 
achievement,  and  today  it  is  carrying  on  its  work  with  a  zeal  that 
comes  only  from  a  noble  desire  to  serve.  But  it  is  greatly  hampered 
on  account  of  its  very  limited  equipment.  While  its  maximum  ca- 
pacity is  supposedly  one  hundred,  there  are  at  present  one  hundred 
and  thirty-three  boys  in  this  school,  and  more  than  two  hundred  on 
the  waiting  list.  Why  cannot  all  the  wealthier  counties  build  cottages 
of  their  own  at  this  school,  as  Guilford  and  Mecklenburg  have  already 
done? 

These  figures  speak  for  themselves.  The  Samarcand  Manor,  a  home 
for  fallen  girls  and  women,  has  been  but  recently  established.  For 
years  the  institution  has  been  badly  needed.  It  is  now  entering  upon 
its  great  work.  Its  capacity  has  already  been  reached,  and  now  is  the 
time  for  the  state  and  for  individual  counties  to  provide  for  larger 
facilities  on  the  grounds  of  Samarcand  Manor. 

3.  The  Regional  Establishment  of  Additional  Training  Schools  for 
Children  of  Each  Race  and  Sex. 

At  the  present  time  no   training  schools  are  conducted   for   negro 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  ]ST.  C.  103 

boys  and  girls.  Besides  Samarcand  Manor,  which  was  intended  pri- 
marily for  girls  of  gross  immorality,  no  girls'  training  school  is  being 
conducted,  and  the  Jackson  Training  School,  even  if  enlarged  con- 
siderably, would  be  unable  to  accommodate  all  our  wayward  boys. 
Hence  your  committee  recommends  the  establishment  of  additional 
training  schools,  preferably  on  a  regional  basis,  so  that  the  juvenile 
court  in  each  district  can  consign  its  worst  delinquents  to  the  District 
Training  School. 

The  character  of  the  people  of  North  Carolina  can  be  seen  in  our 
attitude  towards  these  unfortunate  children.  We  who  believe  that 
a  child  is  by  nature  good  see  the  future  of  our  citizenship  wrapped  up 
in  this  problem.  For  when  men  encourage,  support,  and  uplift  their 
less  fortunate  brethren,  barbarism  has  been  left  behind,  and  a  new 
era  of  goodwill  towards  men  dawns.  He  who  is  unwilling  to  help  bear 
the  burdens  of  this  task  is  a  poor  citizen,  and  society,  to  which  he 
owes  everything,  receives  at  his  hands  little  or  no  benefit. — W.  H. 
Bobbitt,  Chairman  Sub-Committee  on  Child  Delinquency  and  the 
Juvenile  Court. 

February  9,  1920. 


PRISON  POLICIES  AND  REFORMS 

R.  E.  BOYD,  GASTONIA,  N.  C. 

The  meeting  tonight,  said  Mr.  T.  J.  Brawley,  the  Committee  Chair- 
man, is  devoted  to  the  second  study  of  public  welfare  problems  in 
North  Carolina.  The  subject  deals  with  (1)  jail  conditions,  abuses, 
remedies,  etc.;  (2)  the  state-farm  plan  for  misdemeanants,  and  (3) 
penitentiary  policies. 

These  problems  have  long  been  with  us,  but  little  has  been  done  to 
solve  them  in  North  Carolina.  The  old  jail,  with  its  filth  and  other 
abuses,  is  still  here.  The  county  chain  gang,  which  has  been  abolished 
in  many  states,  still  exists  in  this  state.  Under  this  system  of  punish- 
ment no  plan  is  provided  for  teaching  a  man  to  live  a  better,  healthier 
life  when  he  is  released.  When  he  is  released  he  has  learned  no 
trade,  nor  does  he  go  out  into  the  community  better  able  to  live  a 
respectable  life. 

If  we  have  the  chain  gang  at  all,  it  should  be  taken  out  of  the  hands 
of  county  officials  and  placed  under  direct  state  supervision.  But  even 
then  the  many  evils  inherent  in  this  form  of  punishment  would  not 
be  corrected. 

The  state-farm  plan  of  dealing  with  misdemeanants  is  a  solution  of 
the  chain-gang  problem.  Or  so  it  is  proving  to  be  in  Indiana.  Here 
men  have  no  ball  and  chain  attached  to  their  limbs.  They  are  free  in 
their  movements,  but  they  are  forced  to  learn  at  least  the  rudiments 
of  farming. 


104          STATE  KECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Persons  convicted  of  felonies  would,  of  course,  be  sent  to  the  peni- 
tentiary, and  only  those  guilty  of  minor  offenses  would  go  to  the  state 
farm. 

The  problem  of  handling  penitentiary  convicts  has  been  worked  out 
successfully  in  many  states  by  means  of  the  indeterminate  sentence 
and  pay-roll  method.  These  methods  have  been  employed  to  some  ex- 
tent in.  the  South,  where  the  development  of  penal  reform  has  been 
slow.  There  are  several  reasons  for  the  tardy  prison  reforms  of  the 
South,  one  in  particular  being  that  most  of  our  offenders  are  negroes. 
Experience  seems  to  show  that  they  cannot  be  dealt  with  in  the  same 
manner  as  white  prisoners.  Such  at  least  is  the  common  belief.  The 
chances  are,  in  my  opinion,  that  we  can  do  far  better  than  we  have 
yet  learned  to  do  with  prisoners  of  both  races. 

The  handling  of  individual  cases  is  a  main  matter  in  prison  reform. 
The  treatment  of  each  prisoner  should  be  adapted  to  his  personal 
needs.  Prisoners  cannot  be  humanely  or  constructively  dealt  with 
in  mass.  Offenders  should  be  treated  in  such  manner  as  to  restore 
them,  if  possible,  to  good  citizenship.  Special  care  should  be  given 
those  suffering  from  tuberculosis  and  other  diseases. 

But  even  more  important  is  the  elimination  of  the  causes  of  crime. 
I  am  here  thinking  especially  of  Buncombe  County.  Before  the  pro- 
hibition laws  went  into  effect  Buncombe  had  three  chain  gangs.  Since 
the  partial  elimination  of  drunkenness  there  is  only  one  chain  gang, 
with  less  than  twenty  men  in  it.  As  we  eliminate  the  evils  that  pro- 
voke or  license  crimes  we  shall  have  fewer  and  fewer  criminals.  As 
we  lessen  the  number  of  criminals  needing  jail  and  penitentiary  treat- 
ment the  need  for  these  purgatories  will  decrease. 

The  problem  of  jail  conditions,  penitentiary  policies,  and  the  restora- 
tion of  prisoners  to  useful  citizenship  is  a  tremendous  task  for  states- 
manship. It  should  command  the  attention  of  every  North  Carolinian. 
In  our  own  state,  as  in  every  other,  there  exist  conditions  and  practices 
that  call  for  correction.  A  main  purpose  of  the  state  in  dealing  with 
offenders  of  the  law  should  be  to  see  them  restored  to  society  as 
respectable,  self-supporting  citizens.  It  is  our  duty  to  see  that  this 
is  done — as  far  at  least  as  it  is  humanly  possible. 

The  report  of  the  sub-committee  will  now  be  presented  by  Mr.  R.  E. 
Boyd. 

Scope  of  the  Report 

North  Carolina  is  an  agricultural-manufacturing  state,  and  a  large 
percentage  of  her  people  are  day  laborers.  Coupled  with  this  fact  is 
the  eternal  negro  problem,  which  has  ever  been  a  perplexity  to  men 
with  visions  of  civic  betterment.  But  at  last  North  Carolina  is  begin- 
ning to  visualize  social  conditions  and  to  institute  reforms  that  have 
as  their  objective  the  furthering  of  public  welfare  throughout  the 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  105 

state.  But  even  with  all  the  progress  of  recent  years  the  field  of 
prison  reforms  has  barely  been  entered  in  North  Carolina.  Not  enough 
attention  has  as  yet  been  paid  to  the  care  of  misdemeanants  in  our 
jails  and  chain  gangs,  and  to  the  felony  convicts  in  our  penitentiary. 

The  county  and  city  jails  of  the  state  house  an  appreciable  portion 
of  its  criminal  population,  and  the  manner  of  this  housing  makes  the 
blood  of  right-minded  North  Carolinians  boil  with  indignation.  Our 
jail  problems  would  be  quickly  solved  if  the  men  and  women  of  North 
Carolina  knew  the  condition  of  things  in  the  jails  of  their  home  towns 
and  counties.  But  they  rarely  or  never  visit  them  and  see  the  filth, 
the  darkness,  the  vermin,  and  the  contamination  of  cells  and  corridors; 
and  when  we  say  contamination  we  mean  contamination  of  bodies  and 
souls  alike.  The  evils  inhere  in  the  jail  system  itself,  and  our  jails 
are  no  worse  in  Hertford,  N.  C.,  than  in  Hartford,  Conn.  If  anybody 
thinks  differently  let  him  read  Hart's  recent  report  on  the  Hartford 
jail. 

The  county  chain  gang  as  it  commonly  exists  in  North  Carolina  today 
is  a  blot  on  our  civilization.  It  is  a  common  thing  to  see  men  with 
heavy  iron  spikes  and  chains  fastened  about  their  ankles  and  waists, 
swinging  picks  from  sun-up  to  sun-down  on  some  roadway,  with  an 
armed  guard  standing  by.  The  camp  itself  is  commonly  deplorable, 
with  white  men  and  big  burly  negroes  huddled  together,  with  little 
or  no  decent  provision  for  cleanliness  of  bodies,  clothing,  beds,  and 
bed  clothes. 

As  a  result  of  its  study  of  jail,  chain-gang,  and  penitentiary  condi- 
tions in  North  Carolina,  the  sub-committee  of  the  North  Carolina  Club 
has  formulated  the  following  program  proposals: 

Program  Proposals 

1.  Some    authoritative    body,    such    as    the    State    Hoard    of    Public 
Welfare  or  the  State  Board  of  Health,  shall  be  required  to  examine 
every  county  jail  in  the  state  at  frequent  intervals,  and  whenever  a 
jail  is  found  to  be  unfit  for  the  confinement  of  humans  the  board  shall 
notify  the  judge  of  the  circuit,  county,  or  muncipal  court  of  this  con- 
dition and  he  shall  require  the  responsible  authorities  to  remedy  the 
same;  and  as  long  as  the  jail  is  condemned  no  prisoners  shall  be  com- 
mitted to  it,  but  shall  be  placed  in  an  approved  jail  of  some  other  city 
or  county. 

2.  The  abolition  of  turnkey  fees,  and  allowances  to  sheriffs  for  the 
feeding  of  prisoners  beyond  the  sworn  statement  of  the  cost  of  same. 
The  frequent  inspection  of  prison  fare  by  the  county  public  welfare 
superintendent. 

3.  The  surrender  to  the  state  of  misdemeanants  promptly  upon  con- 
viction. 


106          STATE  KECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

4.  Abolition  of  county  chain  gangs. 

5.  The  state-farm  plan  of  dealing  with  convicted  misdemeanants. 

6.  The    compensation    of    sheriffs    for    delivering    prisoners,    insane 
people,  epileptics  and  the  like  to  state  institutions  shall  be  based  on 
trip  expenses,  properly  detailed,  instead  of  so  much  per  prisoner. 

7.  Penitentiary  convicts  to  be  used  for  public-road  building,  farming, 
and  other  productive  work,  under  state  supervision  and  for  state  pur- 
poses only. 

8.  Reasonable  compensation  shall  be  allowed  therefor,  in  behalf  of 
the  convict's  dependent  family. 

9.  Emphasis  shall  be  placed  on  the  indeterminate  sentence  and  the 
parole. 

10.  There  shall  be  vocational  schooling,  night  schools,  etc.,  for  both 
misdemeanants  and  convicts. 

11.  Convicts  shall  not  be  leased  to  private  parties  or  corporations. 

Explanations 

One  of  the  present  duties  of  the  State  Board  of  Health  is  to  inspect 
and  rate  county  jails.  Out  of  15  jails  recently  examined  the  highest 
score  was  73.5  points  and  the  lowest  50  points.  Of  six  convict  camps 
examined  the  highest  score  was  76  points  and  the  lowest  62  points. 
These  low  scores  were  given  for  such  shortcomings  as  failure  to  pro- 
vide night-clothing  and  clean  beds,  lack  of  provision  against  flies, 
mosquitoes  and  vermin,  absence  of  spittoons  and  shower  baths,  lack  of 
provision  for  the  separation  of  diseased  prisoners  from  their  com- 
panions, or  of  sexes,  or  races.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  most  of  our 
county  jails  are  dark,  dingy,  and  dirty,  and  that  they  provide  no  means 
for  exercise  and  fresh  air.  These  are  deplorable  conditions,  and  they 
cannot  be  remedied  by  merely  publishing  jail  scores.  Some  board,  it" 
matters  not  whether  it  be  the  State  Board  of  Public  Welfare  or  the 
State  Board  of  Health,  should  be  given  the  power  to  condemn  any  jail  or 
chain-gang  camp  found  to  be  unfit  for  the  habitation  of  humans,  and 
should  notify  the  judge  of  the  circuit  court,  who  shall  forbid  any 
prisoner  to  be  kept  in  said  jail  or  chain-gang  camp  until  the  authori- 
ties make  it  comply  with  certain  regulations  prescribed  by  the  said 
board.  Any  prisoners  committed  to  jail  in  the  meantime  shall  be 
sent,  by  the  order  of  the  judge,  to  some  other  county  jail,  and  the 
county  sending  such  prisoners  shall  pay  all  the  expenses  of  conveyance 
and  keep.  If  the  jail  is  not  put  into  proper  condition  in  a  reasonable 
length  of  time  the  board  shall  report  the  case  to  the  Governor,  who 
may,  if  he  sees  fit,  declare  it  to  be  unlawful  to  commit  anyone  to 
said  jail  until  it  has  been  rebuilt,  or  remodeled,  or  in  some  other  man- 
ner put  into  proper  condition. 

The  fee  system  of  compensating  sheriffs  for  the  care,  keep  and  con- 
veyancing of  prisoners  has  been  in  existence  for  many  years,  and  it  is 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  107 

now  time  to  abandon  it.  It  is  not  a  commonly  known  fact  that  many 
sheriffs  in  this  state  receive  a  fee  every  time  the  jail  door  is  opened 
to  receive  or  discharge  a  prisoner,  and  that  they  also  receive  a  stated 
legal  per  diem  allowance  for  feeding  every  prisoner  who  is  confined 
in  the  jail.  There  is  law  on  the  subject,  almost  as  many  laws  indeed 
as  there  are  counties,  but  the  law  is  little  regarded.  It  is  needless 
to  say  that  this  system  has  often  been  a  sad  temptation  to  graft.  Or 
so  it  appears  in  Orchard's  report  on  Pennsylvania  jails.  The  plan  has 
entailed  much  suffering  to  prisoners  and  much  needless  expense  to  the 
counties.  The  allowance  for  food  varies  from  20  cents  to  75  cents  a 
day  per  prisoner.  Jail  officials  are  tempted  to  buy  the  cheapest  food 
they  can  find  and  to  pocket  a  large  portion  of  the  allowance.  Hence, 
it  seems  best  that  sheriffs  should  receive  a  sufficiently  large  salary 
from  the  county  and  be  required  to  feed  and  care  for  jail  inmates  at 
cost  as  shown  by  properly  detailed  accounts.  Turnkey  fees  should  be 
entirely  eliminated.  They  are  just  as  mischievous  today  as  Howard 
found  them  to  be  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

It  has  been  rightly  said  that  a  jail  is  a  place  of  detention  for  persons 
arrested  for  crime  and  awaiting  trial,  and  presumed  to  be  innocent 
until  proven  guilty;  that  in  the  very  nature  of  things  it  cannot  safely 
be  a  place  either  of  punishment  or  reformation.  If  the  state-farm 
plan  of  dealing  with  misdemeanants  were  adopted,  as  proposed,  there 
would  be  no  people  serving  sentences  in  the  county  jail  or  on  county 
chain  gangs,  as  at  present.  Only  those  awaiting  trial  would  be  housed 
within  its  walls.  As  these  people  are  held  to  be  innocent  until  proven 
guilty,  they  of  right  ought  to  be  given  all  the  care,  convenience,  and 
liberty  compatible  with  their  safe  keeping.  Accordingly,  the  vesting 
of  power  in  the  State  Board  of  Public  Welfare  or  the  State  Hoard  of 
Public  Health  to  check  up  the  jail  authorities  and  force  them  to  con- 
form to  the  laws  of  sanitation,  health,  comfort,  and  morality  is  reason- 
able and  necessary. 

The  county  chain  gang  is  a  primitive  plan  for  punishing  misde- 
meanants by  county  authorities.  It  is  unavoidably  crude,  oftentimes 
cruel,  and  invariably  degrading.  It  effectively  hinders  the  reform  of 
prisoners,  and  their  restitution  to  society  as  useful  citizens.  It  should 
be  abolished.  The  delicate  business  of  punishing  and  at  the  same 
time  reforming  prisoners,  both  misdemeanants  and  felony  convicts, 
is  the  job  of  the  state,  not  the  impossible  job  of  county  and  municipal 
authorities. 

Indiana  is  the  first,  and  so  far  the  only,  state  to  provide  a  farm 
for  her  misdemeanants.  Her  belief  that  the  effect  of  setting  men  to 
work  out-of-doors  would  be  to  put  many  county  jails  out  of  business 
was  soon  verified.  A  large  number  of  her  jails  have  since  remained 
empty.  Misdemeanants  over  16  years  of  age  who  are  sentenced  to 
60  days  or  more  are  sent  to  the  farm,  where  they  receive  the  advantages 


108  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

of  vocational  training  in  the  open  air  under  an  indeterminate-probation- 
parole  system.  There  is  no  one  standing  over  them  with  a  gun  while 
they  work;  on  the  other  hand,  they  go  out  to  the  fields  and  return 
unguarded.  The  number  of  attempted  escapes  has  been  negligible. 
Here  the  youthful  offender  is  not  brought  into  close,  idle  contact  with 
seasoned  criminals,  as  he  is  in  the  county  jails.  The  number  of 
prisoners  is  large  enough  to  permit  classification  and  promotion  ac- 
cording to  good  behavior.  Their  bodies  are  built  up  by  outdoor  work. 
They  are  taught  various  trades  and  they  have  the  privilege  of  attend- 
ing night  schools.  The  misdemeanants  who  are  sent  there  are  under 
the  care  of  expert  penologists,  who  have  the  well-being  of  the  prisoners 
at  heart. 

To  care  for  women  in  the  jails  a  smaller  farm  home  should  be  pro- 
vided where  they  can  do  proper  work,  and  receive  proper  instruction 
and  proper  care. 

One  penitentiary  with  its  farm  for  felony  convicts  is  doing  well  in 
North  Carolina,  but  its  usefulness  could  be  increased  by  the  institu- 
tion of  a  few  new  policies.  Road  building  could  be  carried  on  by 
penitentiary  convicts  in  honor  camps,  where  there  are  the  fewest 
possible  restrictions  on  the  men.  This  kind  of  work  should  be  done 
mainly  on  state  highways.  Each  county  would  be  credited  with  the 
number  of  convicts  she  furnished,  thus  enabling  a  fair  rate  of  com- 
pensation to  be  established  for  the  county  treasuries.  Farming  should 
be  carried  on  at  the  state  farm  as  at  present,  but  with  more  attention 
paid  to  the  diversification  of  crops  and  the  care  of  live  stock.  There 
should  be  no  objection  to  manufacture  by  the  prisoners,  under  state 
supervision,  of  products  used  in  state  institutions;  as,  for  instance, 
brooms.  No  factory  so  run,  however,  should  turn  out  products  in 
competition  with  free  labor. 

For  such  work  the  convict  should  receive  a  reasonable  compensa- 
tion, based  on  existing  wage  conditions,  to  be  sent  to  his  dependent 
family.  What  this  amount  should  be  would  depend  largely  on  the 
needs  of  the  family,  and  the  varying  efficiencies  of  prisoners. 

Emphasis  should  be  placed  on  the  indeterminate  sentence,  proba- 
tion, and  parole.  The  prisoner  should  receive  only  the  privileges  which 
he  shows  himself  capable  of  using  rightly,  and  when  by  his  behavior 
he  shows  that  he  is  capable  of  reassuming  the  duties  of  citizenship 
he  should  be  returned  to  society. 

While  the  convict  is  being  reformed  as  well  as  punished  he  should 
be  taught  some  trade.  On  the  state  farm  he  can  be  taught  black- 
smithing,  carpentering,  plumbing,  orcharding,  trucking,  the  care  of 
live  stock,  butter  making,  poultry  farming  and  the  like.  If  night 
schools  are  conducted  the  convict  has  an  opportunity  to  learn  to  read, 
write  and  speak  correctly.  The  men  should  be  encouraged  to  better 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  TJ.  OF  N.  C.  109 

themselves  by  putting  the  more  capable  ones  in  charge  of  various 
operations  about  the  farm. 

No  matter  how  well  the  state  cares  for  its  felony  convicts  in  its 
penitentiary  and  on  its  farm,  the  whole  plan  of  reforming  prisoners 
will  fail  unless  the  prison  lease  system  is  abolished.  We  have  this 
iniquity  embodied  in  the  statute  law  of  North  Carolina;  but  we  do 
not  have  it  in  actual  operation  in  anything  like  the  manner  or  meas- 
ure of  other  states.  Under  this  system  groups  of  men  are  hired  to 
farmers  or  manufacturers  at  a  very  low  wage  per  man,  although  the 
state  houses,  feeds,  and  guards  them.  The  wages  received  vary  from 
66  cents  to  95  cents  a  day  per  man.  The  system  is  a  gold  mine  to 
contractors,  but  it  is  essentially  vicious  in  its  effect  upon  the  prisoners. 
This  system  is  in  vogue  in  twenty-four  states,  North  Carolina  among 
them.  It  looks  as  though  it  will  take  the  wrath  of  God  Almighty 
himself  to  break  it  up  in  the  United  States.  The  convicts  are  often 
mistreated  and  punished  on  the  slightest  provocation.  They  are 
worked  ten  or  twelve  hours  a  day.  This  system  is  a  cruel  injustice 
to  them,  as  well  as  to  the  laboring  men  who  have  to  compete  with 
the  low  wages  paid  under  the  prison-lease  plan.  It  would  be  to  the 
best  interests  of  all  concerned  if  such  a  law  were  forever  wiped  off 
the  statute  books  of  North  Carolina. — R.  E.  Boyd,  Chairman  Sub-Com- 
mittee on  Prison  Policies  and  Reforms. 

February  23,  1921. 


CHILD  LABOR  AND  COMPULSORY  EDUCATION 

T.  J.  BBAWLEY,  GASTONIA,  N.  C. 
Introduction 

The  papers  tonight  deal  with  (1)  Mill  Village  Problems,  (2)  Child 
Labor,  and  (3)  Compulsory  Education. 

These  are  problems  which  have  lately  come  to  our  attention  in 
North  Carolina  because  of  the  growth  of  the  cotton  mill  industry.  The 
cotton  mills  have  brought  us  many  difficult  problems  to  solve,  such 
as  the  labor  turnover,  which  has  been  dealt  with  effectively  in  only 
a  few  mills  of  the  state.  Health  officers  and  community  workers  have 
been  appointed  in  various  mill  centers  to  look  after  the  health  and 
welfare  of  the  people.  Safety  devices  and  workingmen's  compensation 
insurance  have  been  established  by  law  in  many  states.  The  child 
labor  problem  has  become  acute  since  the  factory  system  developed 
in  North  Carolina.  The  child  will  work  for  less  than  the  adult,  and 
for  this  reason  many  parents  and  employers  are  anxious  that  children 
should  work  in  the  factories.  Very  little  skill  is  required  to  do  some 
forms  of  mill  work,  and  for  these  a  child  serves  the  same  purpose  as 
a  man  or  woman. 


110  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

The  first  legislation  passed  in  the  United  States  for  the  protection 
of  children  was  in  Massachusetts,  in  1836.  Since  that  time  child-labor 
laws  have  been  enacted  in  all  those  states  where  there  was  any  neces- 
sity for  them,  and  a  federal  law  was  passed  covering  all  the  states. 
The  constitutionality  of  this  law  is  now  in  question  in  the  federal 
courts. 

Nearly  two  million  children  are  employed  in  industries  in  the  United 
States  today.  In  the  Southern  states  one-half  of  all  the  children  em- 
ployed are  less  than  13  years  of  age.  Or  so  it  was  before  the  federal 
law  went  into  effect. 

The  causes  producing  the  child-labor  problem  are  many.  Poverty 
resulting  from  indifference,  laziness,  or  shirking  of  duty  by  the  head 
of  the  family,  is  responsible  for  a  great  deal  of  it.  Then,  too,  where 
the  family  is  large  and  the  wage  small,  the  child  must  go  to  work  in 
order  that  the  family  may  earn  enough  to  live  comfortably.  It  is  also 
true  that  fathers  and  mothers  are  commonly  more  anxious  to  have 
their  children  work  in  the  mills  than  the  mill  owners  are  to  have 
them  do  so. 

And,  too,  child  labor  has  grown  out  of  the  sordid  desire  of  employers 
to  secure  labor  at  the  lowest  possible  cost  regardless  of  the  laws 
of  nature  or  of  man. 

Conditions  in  schools  have  also  been  a  cause  of  child  labor.  Because 
of  crowded  schools  in  certain  localities  the  teachers  do  not  have  time 
to  give  individual  attention  and  guidance  to  the  pupils,  and  as  a  con- 
sequence many  children  become  discouraged,  fall  behind  in  their  work, 
leave  school  and  enter  upon  some  employment  merely  to  escape  the 
petty  trials  of  school. 

We  now  have  a  complusory  school  law  in  North  Carolina,  but  it  will 
be  effective  only  if  it  is  carried  out. 

The  effect  of  child  labor  is  readily  seen.  Often  the  child's  health  is 
ruined.  He  becomes  stunted,  maimed,  dulled  in  body  and  mind.  The 
child  who  enters  the  industrial  world  at  the  early  age  of  fourteen  has 
not  received  enough  education  to  make  him  capable  of  advancing  far 
in  any  line  of  work.  In  many  cases  where  children  labor  in  mills, 
factories,  or  on  the  streets,  they  have  scarcely  any  home  life.  Family 
life  is  thus  at  a  low  ebb,  and  if  there  is  a  home  at  all  it  becomes  a 
mere  eating  and  sleeping  place. 


MILL  TILLAGE  PROBLEMS 

H.  G.  KINCAID,  GASTONIA,  N.  C. 

No  other  state  in  the  Union  has  as  many  mill  villages  as  has  North 
Carolina.  And  their  problems  are  distinct  from  those  of  city  or  coun- 
try. Those  of  the  country  are  concerned  with  the  conditions  that 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  Ill 

accelerate  the  cityward  drift  of  farm  populations.  The  entire  nation 
is  thus  threatened  with  decreasing  agricultural  production.  And  the 
solution  of  country-life  problems  is  mainly  the  job  of  the  farmers  of 
the  state.  Likewise,  the  city  is  beset  with  problems  which  the  city 
alone  can  solve.  And  so,  too,  the  mill  villages  of  this  state  have  prob- 
lems all  their  own.  The  mill  village  problems  which  we  shall  consider 
at  this  time  relate  indirectly  or  directly  to  the  labor  turnover.  The  la- 
bor turnover  measures  the  discontent  and  restlessness  of  workers,  and 
always  it  results  in  financial  loss  to  the  companies.  Eliminating  as 
far  as  possible  the  causes  producing  instable  citizenship  in  mill  vil- 
lages will  promote  the  happiness  of  wage  earners  and  increase  their 
confidence  in  the  mill  owners.  At  the  same  time  it  will  lead  to  greater 
financial  success  for  the  company. 

Many  of  the  larger  plants  of  the  country  have  found  progressive  im- 
provements profitable.  Forty  or  more  of  our  own  textile  manufac- 
turers have  taken  progressive  steps  in  labor  relationships  and  evidence 
accumulates  to  show  that  these  progressive  policies  have  yielded  lib- 
eral dividends  in  goodwill  as  well  as  in  cash. 

Program  Proposals 

Toward  the  solution  of  mill  village  problems  in  North  Carolina  we 
recommend: 

1.  The  establishment  of  an  employment  or  labor-manager  department 
wherever  the  mill  is  large  enough  to  afford  it. 

2.  The  encouraging  of  home  ownership   for  worth-while   employees 
by  the  mill  company  on  an  amortization  plan,  as  at  Bayonne  by  the 
Standard  Oil  Company. 

3.  That  each  mill  have  a  public  health  officer,  one  or  more  public 
health  nurses,  and  a  recreation  secretary — or  at  least  such  mills  as 
can  afford  to  engage  in  such  community  work,  and  most  of  them  can, 
in  some  form  and  in  some  degree. 

4.  That  every  mill  company  maintain  workmen's  compensation  in- 
surance for  accidents;  also  sick-benefit  insurance. 

5.  A  playground  outfit  sufficiently  large  for  each  mill  or  group  of 
mills. 

Explanations  in  Brief 

1.  While  we  do  not  believe  that  a  centralized  employment  system 
for  every  mill  in  North  Carolina  would  be  advisable,  because  of  the 
comparatively  small  number  of  workmen  employed  by  some  of  them, 
yet  central  employment  bureaus  have  been  found  highly  efficient  in 
reducing  the  labor  turnover  in  many  industrial  plants  of  the  country, 
and  should,  therefore,  receive  attention  in  North  Carolina.  There  are 
large  textile  plants  in  North  Carolina  which  would  undoubtedly  find 
employment  departments  effective  and  profitable,  both  for  the  em- 


112  STATE  KECONSTKUCTION  STUDIES 

ployees  and  the  companies.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Durham  Hosiery 
Mills  have  been  successfully  using  such  a  system  for  several  years. 
Their  labor  turnover  is  now  between  8  and  10  percent,  instead  of  the 
usual  30  per  cent  in  North  Carolina  and  the  320  per  cent  in  the  country 
at  large. 

Many  systems  are  used,  differing  with  the  special  conditions  and 
needs  of  particular  plants.  In  all  of  them  a  labor  supervisor  is  at  the 
head  of  the  bureau.  He  performs  the  following  functions:  (a)  he 
analyzes  the  requirements  of  the  different  jobs  in  the  mill,  (b)  he 
judges  and  selects  right  men  for  the  jobs,  (c)  he  acts  as  a  middleman 
between  employer  and  employee;  he  receives  complaints  from  the 
workmen  and  acts  upon  them  as  best  suits  their  interests  and  those 
of  the  management;  he  suggests  improvements,  and  in  this  way  he 
promotes  better  relations  between  the  workmen  and  the  company.  The 
head  of  an  employment  department  of  a  Detroit  automobile  concern 
says: 

"Four  years  ago  the  hire-and-fire  system  was  in  vogue  with  us.  If 
a  man  was  needed  for  a  certain  department,  the  foreman  would  hire 
him;  if  needed  no  longer,  he  was  fired.  Our  turnover  at  that  time 
was  about  300  percent  to  maintain  a  working  force  of  6,000.  The 
next  year  the  turnover  had  been  reduced  to  about  200  percent,  an  em- 
ployment department  having  been  looking  into  the  matter  of  turn- 
over about  six  months  of  this  year.  In  the  year  1914  the  turnover 
was  74  percent." 

Smaller  companies  have  likewise  secured  a  substantial  reduction  in 
labor  turnover  through  the  activities  of  labor  managers  or  employment 
departments.  However,  we  recommend  an  employment  department  only 
to  those  mills  that  are  large  enough  to  justify  their  installation. 

2.  We  believe  that  the  ownership  of  homes  by  mill  and  factory 
operatives  is  directly  related  to  stable  citizenship,  and  that  it  will 
help  to  reduce  the  labor  turnover  to  the  smallest  possible  measure. 
Under  this  policy  the  mill  company  builds  homes  for  industrious, 
thrifty  workmen  of  good  character.  These  homes  are  paid  for  in 
weekly  installments  during  practically  as  long  a  period  as  the  em- 
ployees may  desire,  usually  ten  or  twenty  years.  The  advantages  of 
such  a  plan  are  obvious.  The  workman  gets  a  home  of  his  own  and 
one  of  which  he  can  be  proud.  Naturally  a  friendly  feeling  springs 
up  between  the  company  and  its  employees.  For  which  reason  the  plan  is 
better  for  the  company  than  the  old  building  and  loan  association  plan 
of  home-owning.  The  employee  who  lives  in  a  home  built  according 
to  his  wishes  by  his  employer  will  not  hastily  leave  that  employer. 
And  besides,  the  fact  that  he  owns  a  good  home  will  encourage  the 
workman  to  be  more  careful  of  health  conditions  in  the  village.  More- 
over, he  develops  a  sense  of  responsibility  for  local  law  and  order. 
The  employee,  then,  is  healthier,  happier,  and  more  contented  in  a 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  113 

home  of  his  own.  The  employer  has  a  healthy,  contented  workman 
who  is  likely  to  stay  with  him.  The  Standard  Oil  Company  is  trying 
out  this  plan  of  home  ownership  on  a  large  scale  at  Bayonne.  It  has 
been  perfected  at  the  village  of  LeClaire,  a  mill  village  about  16  miles 
east  of  St.  Louis.  The  population  is  670.  Remarkable  as  it  may  seem, 
this  village  has  never  had  a  mayor,  a  policeman,  a  jail,  or  a  bar-room. 
It  has  never  seemed  to  need  any  of  these  modern  agencies  of  civiliza- 
tion. With  only  seven  exceptions,  every  family  owns  its  own  home. 
The  stability  of  this  mill  village  population  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  in  27  years  the  total  loss  of  native-born  population  is  one  girl. 

Home  ownership  is  one  of  the  needs  of  mill  villages  in  North 
Carolina. 

3.  Each  mill  should  have  a  public  health  officer,  one  or  more  public 
health  nurses,  and  a  recreation  secretary  or  community  worker. 

The  public  health  officer  will  create  healthful  conditions  for  the 
working  men.  He  will  see  to  it  that  the  mill  is  kept  in  a  sanitary 
condition.  Where  the  peculiar  conditions  of  a  job  make  it  unhealthful 
or  dangerous  he  will  either  eliminate  those  conditions  or  provide  the 
workmen  with  protection  against  them.  And  he  will  assure  himself 
that  this  protection  is  used.  The  public  health  officer  will  also  investi- 
gate thoroughly  conditions  of  health,  morality,  law  and  order  in  the 
mill  community.  He  will  constantly  seek  the  cooperation  of  the 
operatives  in  every  matter  that  concerns  the  common  good. 

The  public  health  nurse  will  also  have  important  duties.  It  is,  of 
course,  advisable  for  every  mill  or  group  of  mills  to  have  a  community 
house.  The  nurse  will  visit  and  nurse  the  sick.  The  injured  will  be 
given  first  aid  by  her.  She  will  organize  and  superintend  the 
nursery  for  the  young  babes  of  mothers  who  are  working  in  the 
mills.  These  babies  will  be  cared  for  in  the  community  house.  The 
nurse  also  will  advise  new  mothers,  and  especially  young  wives  about 
to  become  mothers.  The  nurse  will  need  one  or  more  assistants  in 
the  community  house.  In  fact,  her  duties  will  be  so  numerous  that 
it  is  evident  there  should  be  not  one  nurse  for  each  mill  but  two  or 
three,  as  the  size  of  the  mill  village  may  require. 

The  recreation  secretary  puts  enthusiasm  and  life  into  the  people 
of  the  mill  village.  He  knows  the  use  of  the  playground  outfit,  which 
will  be  mentioned  later.  He  will  direct  the  young  children  and  the 
larger  boys  and  girls  so  that  they  will  get  the  greatest  benefit  from 
leisure  time  activities.  He  will  look  after  the  entertainments  of  the 
village.  He  will  be  busy  with  the  community  bands,  the  clubs,  and 
plays,  ice-cream  suppers,  picnics,  and  the  like.  The  recreation  secre- 
tary, then,  has  an  enlivening  effect  upon  the  community.  He  gives  the 
people,  old  and  young,  the  recreation  which  makes  them  better  and 
more  contented  workers. 
8 


114          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

4.  But  accidents  and  sickness  will  occur.    And  so  we  recommend  a 
workingmen's   compensation   insurance   for  all   employees.     The   mill 
company  should  also  carry  insurance  for  its  workmen  against  sickness. 
The  fact  that   a  mill   company   carries   insurance   for   its  employees 
against  both  accident  and  sickness  gives  it  a  name  which  it  is  well 
to  have.     Mill  companies  can  relieve  themselves  of  the  direct  burden 
of  accident  or  sick-benefit  insurance  by  taking  out  block  policies.     It 
has  been  the  experience  of  companies  employing  this  plan  in   other 
states  that  in  practically  all  cases  the  awards  for  sickness  and  acci- 
dents are  quickly  and  justly  settled.     For  the  protection  of  the  em- 
ployer as  well  as  of  the  employee  all  probable  causes   for  accidents 
should  be  removed. 

In  October,  1919,  there  were  but  six  states  in  the  Union  without 
workingmen's  compensation  laws.  North  Carolina  was  among  these 
six. 

5.  The  necessity  for  playground  outfits  needs  hardly  to  be  mentioned. 
By  giving  the  children   facilities   for  play  and   supplying  intelligent 
direction  for  it,  we  get  strong  and  healthy  workmen  for  the  future.    The 
companies  using  the  playground  outfits  say  that  they  are  fully  repaid 
for  them.    The  cost  is  not  great.     The  playground  outfit  for  the  Carr 
Mill  at  Durham  cost  only  $2,300.     The  cost  at  present  would  be  more 
nearly  $5,000.    The  company  has  never  made  a  better  investment,  says 
Mr.  Carr. 

We  believe  that  the  acceptance  of  these  recommendations  will  aid  in 
bringing  about  cooperation  on  part  of  employees  and  employers,  and 
in  advancing  the  interests  of  both. — H.  G.  Kincaid,  Chairman  Sub- 
Committee  on  Mill  Village  Problems. 

March  8,  1920. 


CHILD  LABOR  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 

T.  J.  BRAWLEY,  GASTONIA,  N.  C. 

The  second  paper  tonight,  and  the  last  of  the  public  welfare  studies 
of  the  Club,  deals  with  child  labor.  The  child  labor  and  mill  village 
problems  have  grown  in  difficulty  along  with  the  expansion  of  the 
cotton  mill  industry  in  North  Carolina.  These  problems  are  more 
acute  in  North  Carolina  than  in  other  Southern  states  because  we  lead 
the  South  in  cotton  textile  industries.  We  have  more  mills,  more 
spindles,  more  operatives,  a  greater  variety  of  cotton  factory  products, 
a  larger  pay  roll  and  a  greater  volume  of  textile  wealth  than  any  other 
state  south  of  New  England. 

This  paper  deals  with  (1)  the  facts  of  child  labor  in  North  Carolina, 
(2)  the  state  and  federal  laws,  (3)  conclusions,  and  (4)  compulsory 
education. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  115 

I,  Our  Child-Labor  Laws. 

The  legislature  of  1919  revised  the  child-labor  laws  to  a  great  extent. 
A  child-labor  commission  was  appointed  to  see  that  the  new  laws 
enacted  should  be  strictly  enforced.  Mr.  E.  F.  Carter  is  its  executive 
secretary,  in  the  State  Public  Welfare  Department. 

The  new  law,  effective  July  1,  1919,  which  is  written  with  the  com- 
pulsory school  law,  says  that: 

No  child  under  the  age  of  14  years  shall  be  employed,  or  permitted 
to  work  in,  or  about,  or  in  connection  with,  any  mill,  factory,  cannery, 
workshop,  manufacturing  establishment,  laundry,  bakery,  mercantile 
establishment,  barber  shop,  bootblack  stand,  public  stable,  garage,  place 
of  amusement,  brickyard,  lumberyard,  or  any  messenger  or  delivery 
service,  except  in  cases  and  under  regulations  prescribed  by  the  commis- 
sion hereinafter  created. 

Farming  and  domestic  occupations  are  not  prohibited. 

The  following  additions  and  exceptions  have  been  made  to  the  above 
section: 

1.  No  child  of  any  age  under  16  will  be  permitted  to  work  in  any  of 
the  occupations  enumerated  above  before  6  o'clock  in  the  morning  or 
after  9  o'clock  at  night.    The  law  itself  makes  this  rule  mandatory. 

2.  No  girl  under  14  years  of  age  shall  be  permitted  to  work  in  any 
of  the  places  enumerated  in  the  bill. 

3.  No  child  under  14  years  of  age  shall  be  employed  in  any  of  the 
places  enumerated  in  the  bill  for  more  than  eight  hours  a  day. 

4.  Boys  between  12  and  14  years  of  age  may  be  employed  in  the 
enumerated  occupations  when  the  public  school  is  not  in  session,  Tvhen 
it  is  shown  by  the  county  superintendent  of  public  welfare  that  the 
proposed  employment  is  not  likely  to  injure  the  health  of  the  child. 
But  in  no  case  shall  such  employment  be  legal  until  a  certificate  has 
been  issued  by  the  County  Superintendent  of  Public  Welfare  on  blanks 
furnished  by  the  State  Commission.     If  necessary  physical  examination 
may  be  required. 

5.  During  the  time  that  the  public  school  is  in  session  boys  between 
the  ages  of  12  and  14  years  may  be  employed  on  Saturday  and  out  of 
school  hours  on  the  same  conditions  as  stated  above,  provided  that  such 
continuous   employment   does   not    interfere   with   their   school   work. 
When  school  officers  have  provided  for  what  is  known  as  continuation 
schools  and  where  arrangements  have  been  made  to  make  the  outside 
employment  a  unit  of  the  school  work,  boys  of  this  age  may,  in  specific 
cases,  be  allowed  to  be  occupied  in  employment  during  school  hours  for 
a  limited  time  at  the  direction  of  the  Superintendent  of  Schools. 

This  law  of  the  state  is  a  measure  for  child  welfare,  and  it  solicits 
the  cooperation  and  aid  of  all  people  interested  in  aiding  the  officials 
in  seeing  that  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  the  law  are  carried  out. 


I 
116  STATE  KECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

The  federal  law  says:  That  every  person  operating  (1)  any  mine 
or  quarry  situated  in  the  United  States  in  which  children  under  the 
age  of  16  years  have  heen  employed  or  permitted  to  work  during  any 
portion  of  the  taxable  year;  or  (2)  any  mill,  cannery  (other  than  a 
bona  fide  boys'  or  girls'  canning  club  recognized  by  the  agricultural 
department  of  a  state  or  the  United  States),  workshop,  factory,  or 
manufacturing  establishment  situated  in  the  United  States  in  which 
children  under  the  age  of  14  years  have  been  employed  or  permitted 
to  work,  or  children  between  the  ages  of  14  and  16  have  been  employed 
or  permitted  to  work  more  than  eight  hours  in  any  day,  or  more  than 
six  days  in  any  week,  or  after  the  hour  of  7  p.  m.  or  before  the  hour 
of  6  a.  m.,  during  any  portion  of  the  taxable  year,  shall  pay  for  each 
taxable  year  in  addition  to  all  other  taxes  imposed  by  law,  an  excise 
tax  equivalent  to  10  percent  of  the  entire  net  profits  received  or  ac- 
crued for  such  year  from  the  sale  or  disposition  of  the  product  of  such 
mine,  quarry,  or  manufacturing  establishment. 

The  federal  authorities  now  have  agents  in  the  state  issuing  certifi- 
cates and  otherwise  looking  after  the  enforcement  of  the  federal  law, 
which  is  more  drastic  than  the  state  law.  Mr.  M.  L.  Shipman,  State 
Labor  Commissioner,  looks  after  the  enforcement  of  the  federal  law. 

Conclusions 

These  measures  for  child  welfare  should  be  given  full  aid  and  co- 
operation to  secure  the  beneficent  purpose  intended.  Wholesome  con- 
ditions of  environment  must  be  provided  for  children  while  not  in 
school  or  employed.  Better  homes  must  be  provided,  more  parental 
thought  and  care,  and  more  public  cooperation  in  the  way  of  play- 
grounds and  other  wholesome  recreation. 

II.    Compulsory  Education 

As  mentioned  above  the  compulsory  education  law  was  written  in 
with  the  child  labor  law  which  went  into  effect  July  1,  1919.  The  law 
states  that  all  children  between  the  ages  of  8  and  14  years  must  attend 
school  continuously  for  a  period  equal  to  the  time  when  the  public 
school  in  the  district  in  which  the  child  resides  shall  be  in  session.  If 
the  school  in  such  district  runs  six  months,  the  child  must  attend  that 
length  of  time;  if  more,  even  10  months,  the  attendance  must  be  con- 
tinuous. Attendance  records  must  be  kept  by  the  schools. 

One  of  the  important  features  of  the  rules  issued  is  that  governing 
the  excuse  of  absences.  The  teacher  in  charge  shall  have  the  right  to 
excuse  pupils  for  temporary  absence  for  the  following  reasons: 

(1)  Illness  of  the  child  that  prevents  the  child  from  attend- 
ing school,  etc.;  (2)  Illness  in  the  family  where  it  is  apparent 
that  the  child's  services  are  needed  in  the  home  and  wherever 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  117 

there  is  danger  of  spreading  contagious  diseases  if  attendance 
is  not  interrupted;  (3)  Death  in  the  immediate  family;  (4) 
Quarantine  in  which  isolation  is  the  order  of  the  local  or 
the  State  Board  of  Health;  (5)  Physical  incapacity,  which 
shall  be  interpreted  to  mean  that  such  defects  make  it  diffi- 
cult for  the  child  to  attend  school;  (6)  Mental  incapacity,  etc.; 
(7)  Severe  weather  that  is  dangerous  to  health  or  safety  of 
the  children;  (8)  Distance  from  the  schools,  two  and  one-half 
miles  from  the  nearest  school  being  considered  an  excuse  for 
absence;  it  will  be  the  duty  of  the  county  to  provide  transpor- 
tation; (8)  Poverty  is  an  excuse,  but  such  indigence  must  be 
reported  to  the  County  Superintendent  of  Public  Welfare,  etc.; 
(10)  The  completion  of  the  course  of  study  in  the  district  shall 
be  an  excuse. 

As  for  effective  vocational  mill  village  schools,  very  few,  if  any, 
exist  in  the  state  of  North  Carolina  or  in  the  South.  The  need  for 
such  a  school  where  the  mill  operatives  can  learn  how  to  make  the 
most  of  their  lives,  how  to  spend  the  money  they  earn,  how  to  keep 
the  home  free  from  disease,  how  to  work  mill  arithmetic,  etc.,  is 
indeed  very  important.  Since  so  few  of  the  mill  pupils  complete  a 
higher  education  their  greatest  need  lies  in  thorough  vocational  edu- 
cation. 

Recommendations :    Child  Labor 

1.  As  for  the  employment  of  children,  we  recommend  that  no  boy 
under  the  age  of  14,  and  no  girl  under  the  age  of  16,  shall  be  per- 
mitted to  work  in  any  mill,   factory,   workshop,  cannery,   mercantile 
establishment,    place    of    amusement,    restaurant,    laundry,    or    office, 
while  school  is  in  session. 

2.  No  child  under  the  age  of  16  years  should  be  allowed  to  work  in 
specific  dangerous  occupations. 

3.  No  child  under  14  should  be  allowed  to  work  more  than  eight 
hours  per  day,  nor  between  the  hours  of  9  p.  m.  and  6  a.  m. 

4.  The    State   Child   Labor   Inspector   and   his   assistants,    who   are 
the  County  Public  Welfare  Superintendents,  should  be  given  the  power 
to  inspect  conditions  as  to  the  employment  of  labor  in  factories,  mills, 
workshops,   canneries,   places   of  amusement,   hotels,   restaurants,  and 
office  buildings. 

I 
Recommendations:    Compulsory  Education 

1.  Every  child  from  8  to  18  should  be  compelled  to  attend  school  for 
the  entire  term  of  the  locality  in  which  he  lives,  except  for  physical 
or  mental  disability. 

2.  Every  city  of  5,000  or  more  inhabitants  should  have  a  full-time 
attendance  officer. 


118  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

3.  The  County  Superintendent  of  Public  Welfare  should  be  authorized 
to  employ  a  special  truancy  officer. 

4.  As  for   the   effective   vocational   mill   village   schools,   we   recom- 
mend the  construction  of  schools  like  the  Textile  Industrial  Institute 
now  in  operation  at  Spartanburg,  S.  C.,  the  funds  to  come  from  the 
state,  the  county,  and  the  mill  owners. 

Brief  Explanations:    Child  Labor 

1.  We  believe  that  no  boy  under  the  age  of  14  should  be  allowed  to 
work   during  the  school   session,   because  he   should   receive   a   high- 
school  education  before  beginning  any  regular  work. 

The  influences  of  the  streets  are  bad  enough  for  the  boy  at  16  years 
of  age,  much  more  at  the  age  of  14.  Most  of  the  cases  of  our  juvenile 
courts  come  because  of  this  fact. 

No  girl  under  16  should  be  allowed  to  work  in  any  of  the  places 
enumerated  above  if  the  womanhood  of  the  state  is  to  be  properly  con- 
served in  the  future.  Girls  of  tender  age  should  certainly  not  be  al- 
lowed to  run  the  dangers  of  association  inherent  in  public  places. 

2.  Children  under  16  should  not  be  forced  to  work  in  dangerous  occu- 
pations until  they  realize  the  danger  that  they  run,  and  until  they  can 
protect  themselves  therefrom. 

3.  No  child  should  be  allowed  to  work  more  than  8  hours  a  day  nor 
between  9  p.  m.  and  6  a.  m.  if  he  is  to  get  proper  physical  and  mental 
development. 

4.  The  State  Welfare  Superintendent  and  the  county  welfare  officers 
under  him  are  urged  to  the  faithful  performance  of  their  duties  under 
the  law  to  inspect  conditions  in  places  of  employment,  see  that  sanitary 
conditions  prevail,  and  that  no  violation  of  the  law  occurs. 

Brief  Explanations:    Compulsory  Education 

1.  Every  child  between   the  ages  of  8   and   18   should  be   made   to 
attend  school  in  order  that  he  may  obtain  at  least  a  high  school  edu- 
cation. 

On  account  of  the  retardation  of  many  of  our  pupils  now,  when  they 
are  made  to  attend  school  only  from  the  time  they  are  8  years  old 
until  they  are  16,  many  of  them  have  not  completed  the  fourth  grade. 
This  generally  ends  their  education,  and  we  cannot  hope  to  have  a 
high  class  of  citizenship  if  this  continues. 

2.  One  of  the  charges  brought  against  this  new  law  is  that  it  does 
not  give  the  probation  officer  or  policeman  enough  money  to  justify 
his  bothering  with  getting  children  into  the  schoolroom.    If  our  com- 
pulsory law  is  to  have  any  teeth  in  it  a  full-time  attendance  officer 
must  be  appointed  in  every  county. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  119 

3.  A  full-time  truancy  and  attendance  officer  is  needed  perhaps  more 
in  the  country  than  in  the  small  towns.    Statistics  reveal  the  fact  that 
95   percent  of  the  white  illiteracy  of  the   state  is  found  among  the 
children  in  the  country.    The  people  must  be  made  to  see  the  necessity 
of  sending  their  children  to  school.     Thousands  of  children  of  school 
age  are  now  found  working  on  the  farms. 

4.  The  need  of  a  school  like  that  of  the  Textile  Industrial  Institute 
of  Spartanburg,  S.  C.,  is  readily  seen.     This  school  takes  care  of  the 
young  men   and  women  who  are  without   means   to   pay   their   way 
through  school  and  who  are  willing  to  work  one-half  the  time  that 
they  may  go  to  school  the  other  half.    Its  great  appeal  is  to  the  more 
or  less  illiterate  mill  workers  of  the  South  Atlantic  states  from  14 
years  of  age  and  upward.    A  school  like  this  one  should  be  established 
in   every  mill  center  for  the  North   Carolina  boys  and  girls.     This 
school  gives  the  pupil  more  than  the  fundamentals  of  an  elementary 
education. 

North  Carolinians  must  realize  that  the  problem  of  child  labor  is  a 
big  one,  and  that  it  will  command  the  attention  of  every  North  Caro- 
linian to  find  a  satisfactory  solution. — T.  J.  Brawley,  Chairman  Com- 
mittee on  Public  Welfare. 

March  8,  1920. 


PUBLIC  WELFARE  STUDIES 

Outline 

1.  Child  welfare  in  North  Carolina:     (a)   Legislation,  agencies,  and 
activities  at  present,    (b)   Conditions  of  success,   (c)   Further  needs — 
in  legislation,  in  reform  school  facilities  for  wayward  boys  and  girls 
of  both   races,   in   child-placing   agencies  adequately   supported,   prop- 
erly  officered   and    functioned,    (d)    Mothers'    pensions    wisely   condi- 
tioned. 

2.  Child  delinquency,  town  and  country;   the  juvenile  court,  proba- 
tion problems,  detention  homes,  etc. 

Bibliography 

Selected  reading  references  on  Public  Welfare  for  the  North  Caro- 
lina Club  Committee.  All  the  books,  bulletins,  clippings,  etc.,  are  in, 
the  seminar  room  of  the  rural  social  science  department  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  North  Carolina. 

The  Subject  in  General 

Poverty — Robert  Hunter.     Macmillan  Company,  New  York.     328  pp. 
Misery  and   Its   Causes — Edward   T.   Devine.     Macmillan   Company, 
New  York.    274  pp. 


120  STATE  KECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Social  Problems — Anna  Stewart.  Allyn  and  Bacon,  New  York. 
232  pp. 

Social  Problems — Ezra  T.  Towne.  Macmillan  Company,  New  York. 
406  pp. 

Poverty  and  Social  Progress — Maurice  Farmelee.  Macmillan  Com- 
pany, New  York.  477  pp. 

Problems  of  Child  Welfare — George  B.  Mangold.  Macmillan  Com- 
pany, New  York.  522  pp. 

A  Bibliography  of  Child  Welfare^Eva  L.  Hascomb  and  Dorothy  R. 
Mendenhall.  American  Medical  Association,  535  North  Dearborn  Street, 
Chicago. 

Good  Citizenship  in  Rural  Communities — John  F.  Smith.  John  C. 
Winston  Company,  Chicago.  262  pp. 

Public  Welfare  Program,  N.  C.  State  Social  Service  Conference, 
1919. — University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  360.14. 

Child  Welfare 

Child  Welfare  in  North  Carolina — Edited  by  W.  H.  Swift.  National 
Child  Labor  Committee,  105  East  Twenty-second  Street,  New  York. 
314  pp.  $1.00. 

Children's  Code  Commissions. — A  bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Children's 
Bureau,  Washington.  D.  C. 

Children's  Code  Commissions  Now  at  Work — The  American  Child, 
Feb.,  1921.  pp.  307-9. 

Missouri  Children's  Code  Commission,  1918 — Executive  Offices,  Jef- 
ferson City,  Mo.  231  pp. 

Missouri  Children's  Bills— The  Survey,  June  21,  1919.  112  East 
Nineteenth  Street,  New  York. 

The  State  Orthopaedic  Hospital— ^University  Rural  Social  Science 
Files,  No.  362.8. 

Children's  Home  Society  of  North  Carolina — Idem,  No.  362.7. 

Save  the  Youngest — Bulletin  No.  61  of  the  Children's  Bureau, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

Minimum   Standards  of  Child  Welfare— Bulletin  No.   62.     Ibid. 

Child-Placing  in  Families — W.  H.  Slingerland.  Russell  Sage  Foun- 
dation, 112  East  Twenty-second  Street,  New  York.  1919.  264  pp. 

The  Selection  of  Foster  Homes  for  Children — Mary  S.  Doran  and 
Bertha  C.  Reynolds.  New  York  School  of  Social  Work,  105  East 
Twenty-second  Street,  New  York.  1919.  74  pp.  35  cents. 

Problems  of  Child  Welfare — George  B.  Mangold.  The  Macmillan 
Company,  New  York.  552  pp. 

Laws  Relating  to  Mothers'  Pensions  in  the  United  States,  Denmark, 
and  New  Zealand — Bulletin  of  the  Children's  Bureau,  Washington, 
D.  C.  102  pp. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  IN".  C.  121 

Biennial  Report  of  the  North  Carolina  State  Board  of  Charities  and 
Public  Welfare,  1919 — Bulletin  of  the  Board,  Vol.  I,  No.  4,  Raleigh, 
N.  C.  50  pp.  Also  the  Report  of  this  Board  to  the  Legislature  of 
1921. 

Public  Welfare  in  North  Carolina — Vols.  I  and  II  of  the  Bulletins 
of  the  State  Welfare  Board,  Raleigh. 

Juvenile  Delinquency 

The  Juvenile  Court  and  the  Community — Thomas  D.  Eliot.  Mac- 
millan  Company,  New  York.  234  pp. 

The  Juvenile  Courts  and  Probation,  by  Flexner  &  Baldwin.  311  pp. 
— Century  Co.,  N.  Y. 

North  Carolina  Juvenile  Delinquent  Law— Bulletin  of  the  North 
Carolina  State  Board  of  Public  Welfare,  pp.  7-8,  Vol.  I,  No.  1;  Vol.  II, 
No.  1;  and  Vol.  II,  No.  3. 

Report  of  the  Jackson  Training  School,  1916-1918 — €has.  E.  Boger, 
Superintendent,  Concord,  N.  C.  12  pp. 

The  Jackson  Training  School — G.  G.  Dickson.  Press  clipping,  Uni- 
versity Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  364.1. 

Samarcand  Manor — Mrs.  Chamberlain.  Bulletin  North  Carolina 
State  Public  Welfare  Board,  Raleigh.  Vol.  1,  No.  3,  pp.  5-7. 

Which?  What  it  Means  to  be  a  Big  Brother  or  a  Big  Sister — State 
Board  of  Public  Welfare,  Raleigh,  N.  C. 

Defectives 

A  Mind  That  Found  Itself — Clifford  Whittingham  Beers.  Long- 
mans, Green  and  Company,  New  York.  363  pp. 

Insane,  Feeble-minded,  Epileptics,  and  Inebriates  in  Institutions  in 
the  United  States,  January,  1917 — H.  M.  Pollock  and  Edith  M.  Fur- 
bush.  National  Committee  for  Mental  Hygiene,  Inc.,  50  Union  Square, 
New  York.  19  pp. 

Social  Problems — Ezra  T.  Towne.  Macmillan  Company,  New  York. 
Chapters  IX  and  X. 

The  Kallikaks  of  Kansas,  Report  of  the  Commission  on  Provision 
for  the  Feeble-minded — Executive  Chamber,  Topeka,  Kansas.  31  pp. 

The  Caswell  Training  School,  Kinston,  N.  C. — Reports  of  Dr.  C. 
Banks  McNairy,  Superintendent. 

Colony  Care  for  the  F'eeble-minded — Commission  on  Provision  for 
the  Feeble-minded,  702  Empire  Building,  Philadelphia,  Pa.  19  pp. 

Proceedings,  National  Social  Work  Conference,  1917—315  Plymouth 
Court,  Chicago,  111. 

Jails  and  Penitentiaries 

1.  Jail  conditions,  abuses,  and  remedies;   abolition  of  county  chain 
gangs,   etc. 

2.  The  state-farm  plan  for  dealing  with  convicted   misdemeanants, 
as  in  Indiana. 


122          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

3.  Penitentiary  policies:  (a)  road  building,  farming,  and  other 
productive  work  by  penitentiary  convicts,  under  state  supervision 
and  for  state  purposes  only,  (b)  reasonable  compensation  for  the 
same  in  behalf  of  the  convict's  dependent  family,  (c)  emphasis  on 
the  indeterminate  sentence  and  the  parole,  (d)  vocational  schooling, 
etc. 

Bibliography 

1.  County  Jails.    The  Abolition  of  the  County  Jail — Dr.  Frederick 
H.  Wines.     12  pp. 

County  Jails — Two  Survey  clippings.  University  Rural  Social  Sci- 
ence Files,  No.  352.621. 

Fees  and  the  County  Jail — John  E.  Orchard.  Central  Bureau, 
Yearly  Meeting  of  Friends,  150  North  Fifteenth  Street,  Philadelphia. 

North  Carolina  Prison  Conditions  and  Practices — Press  clippings. 
University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  365.02. 

Jail  Scores  in  North  Carolina — Ibid. 

The  Treatment,  Handling,  and  Work  of  Prisoners,  Public  Laws  of 
North  Carolina,  Session  1917 — Ibid.  8  pp. 

County  Jails — Hastings  H.  Hart.  Prison  Leaflets,  No.  40.  National 
Committee  on  Prisons  and  Prison  Labor,  Broadway  and  One  Hun- 
dred and  Sixteenth  Street,  New  York.  14  pp. 

The  County  Jail  in  Alabama — Dr.  W.  H.  Gates.  University  Rural 
Social  Science  Files,  No.  352.621.  4  pp. 

The  County  Jail  in  Virginia — Commission  report.    Ibid.     9  pp. 

2.  Reform   of  Misdemeanants.    State   Farms   for    Misdemeanants — 
Bulletin  of  the  Indiana  State  Board  of  Charities,  Indianapolis. 

Treatment  of  the  Misdemeanant — Amos  W.  Butler,  Secretary  In- 
diana State  Board  of  Charities,  Indianapolis.  8  pp. 

3.  Penitentiary    Problems.     The    State's    Prison — Reports    of    the 
Superintendent,  Warden,  and  other  officials,  Raleigh,  N.  C. 

A  Social  Welfare  Program  for  the  State  of  Florida — Hastings  H. 
Hart  and  Clarence  L.  Stonaker.  Russell  Sage  Foundation,  112  East 
Twenty-second  Street,  New  York.  pp.  14  and  60-66. 

Report  on  Experimental  Convict  Road  Camp,  Fulton  County,  Ga. — 
H.  S.  Fairbank,  R.  H.  Eastham,  and  W.  F.  Draper.  Bulletin  No.  583, 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  Washington,  D.  C.  64  pp., 
charts  and  maps. 

The  Chain  Gang  in  Burke — University  Rural  Social  Science  Files, 
No.  365.02. 

Punishment  and  Reformation:  A  Study  of  the  Penitentiary  System 
—Frederick  H.  Wines. 

Mill  Village  Problems 

1.  Mill  village  problems:  (a)  the  labor  turnover,  the  facts,  causes 
and  remedies,  (b)  thrift  and  home  ownership,  (c)  health  conditions 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  123 

in  homes  and  factories,  (d)  safety  devices,  working  men's  compen- 
sation, insurance,  etc.,  (e)  playground  outfits,  public-health  nurses, 
hospital  facilities,  kindergartens,  creches,  etc. 

2.  Child   labor:     (a)    the  facts  in   North   Carolina;    the   laws,   state 
and   federal;    conclusions,    (b)    compulsory   education,   effective   voca- 
tional mill  village  schools — a  type  of  education  never  yet  worked  out 
in  southern  mill  villages. 

3.  Care  of  defectives — insane,  feeble-minded,  blind,  deaf  and  dumb. 

Bibliography 

1.  (a)  The  Turnover  of  Factory  Labor — Sumner  H.  Schlichter. 
Appleton  and  Company,  New  York.  460  pp. 

(b)  Home  Ownership.    Home  Owing  Mill  Hands — University  News 
Letter,  Vol.  II,  No.  30. 

— See  also  Farm  and  Ownership  references — University  News  letter, 
Vol  VI,  No.  2. 

(c)  Housing   and   111   Health— Monthly   Labor   Review,    July,    1919. 
Department  of  Labor,  Washington,  D.  C.     pp.  243-8. 

Cooperative  Housing  Law  of  Wisconsin — Idem,  September,  1919. 
p.  351. 

Income  and  Infant  Mortality — Julia  C.  Lathrop.  Reprint  from 
American  Journal  of  Public  Health,  April,  1919. 

Clipping — Literary  Digest.  University  Rural  Social  Science 

Files,  No.  347.16. 

(d)  Safety   Devices,   Industrial  Accidents,   etc. — Parmelee's   Poverty 
and  Social  Progress.     Macmillan  Company,  New  York.    pp.  331-49. 

Bulletins  of  the  National  Safety  Council,  168  North  Michigan 
Avenue,  Chicago. 

Industrial  Accidents — Monthly  Labor  Review,  1919  issues.  See 
table  of  contents.  Department  of  Labor,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Social    Insurance — Ibid. 

Workmen's  Compensation— Alroy  S.  Phillips.  Missouri  Working- 
men's  Compensation  Conference,  1605  Pierce  Building,  St.  Louis. 

Report  of  Committee  on  Social  Insurance — National  Civic  Federa- 
tion, Metropolitan  Tower,  New  York. 

Parmelee's  Poverty  and  Social  Progress,  Chap.  XXII. 

Social  Problems— Anna  Stewart.  Allyn  and  Bacon,  New  York. 
Chap.  IX. 

Mill  Village  Welfare  Work  in  North  Carolina.  See  University 
Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  375.92. 

Mangold's  Problems  of  Child  Welfare,    pp.  177,  189,  470,  et  seq. 

Child  Labor 

Federal  Child  Labor  Law — Revenue  bill  of  1918  Document  No. 
385,  65th  Congress,  p.  91. 


124  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Tax  on  Employment  of  Child  Labor — Document  No.  2823.  Office  of 
Internal  Revenue,  Washington,  D.  C. 

The  North  Carolina  Child  Labor  Law;  the  Federal  Law,  and  Judge 
Boyd's  Decision — University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  331.301. 

Child  Labor  in  North  Carolina— Theresa  Wolfson,  pp.  209-37  of 
Child  Welfare  in  North  Carolina.  National  Child  Labor  Committee, 
105  East  Twenty-second  Street,  New  York. 

Child  Labor  North  and  South — University  News  Letter,  Vol.  II, 
No.  21. 

The  States  and  Child  Labor;  Restriction  as  to  Wages  and  Hours — 
Bulletin  of  the  Children's  Bureau,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Mangold's  Problems  of  Child  Welfare,  pp.  271-338. 

Compulsory  Education 

The  North  Carolina  Law,  with  Interpretations — North  Carolina  De- 
partment of  Education.  University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No. 
375.21. 

Compulsory  School   Attendance — Press   clippings.     Ibid. 

A  Half-Time  Mill  School— H.  W.  Foght.  Bureau  of  Education, 
Washington,  D.  C.  23  pp. 

Mill  Village  Schools — E.  C.  Branson.  University  News  Letter,  Vol. 
V,  No.  38.  See  also  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  375.92. 

Public  Welfare  Committee 

1.  Child  Labor:  T.  J.  Brawley,  Chairman,  Gaston  County,  Gastonia. 

2.  Child  Welfare :  C.  T.  Boyd,  Gaston  County,  Gastonia. 

3.  Mill  Village  Problems:   H.  G.  Kincaid,  Gaston  County,  Gastonia. 

4.  Jail,  State  Farm,  and  Penitentiary  Problems:  R.  E.  Boyd,  Gaston 
County,  Gastonia. 

5.  Child  Delinquency,  and  Volunteer  Social  Allies:    W.  H.  Bobbitt, 
Iredell  County,  Statesville. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  1ST.  C.  125 


CHAPTER  IX 

ORGANIZED  BUSINESS  AND  LIFE— CORPORATE  ORGANIZATION 

J.  V.  BAGGETT,  GREENSBORO,  N.  C. 

A  pressing  problem  before  the  business  world  today  is  democracy 
in  industry.  In  theory  industrial  democracy  assumes  that  the  indi- 
vidual worker  is  interested  in  industry  far  beyond  the  details  of  his 
daily  task,  that  he  is  acquainted  with  the  problems  of  business  man- 
agement, that  he  has  the  knowledge  on  which  to  form  ideas  of  business 
policies  and  to  judge  the  conduct  of  the  business  by  his  employers. 
Such  is  the  assumption  and  in  the  main  it  is  baseless.  Corporate 
business  has  grown  so  rapidly,  into  such  enormous  proportions,  and 
its  management  has  become  so  centralized  that  the  average  employee 
finds  it  impossible  to  think  it  through  from  first  to  last  in  any  par- 
ticular field  of  industry.  The  political,  industrial,  and  social  problems 
of  corporate  business  have  become  highly  specialized  and  organized. 
As  a  result  a  wide  gulf  has  been  created  between  the  employer  and 
the  employee.  Labor  has  been  depersonalized.  The  wage-earner  is 
now  little  more  than  a  cog  or  cam  or  crank  in  some  industrial  ma- 
chine. And  herein  is  the  heart  of  the  matter. 

The  purpose  of  this  paper  is  to  propose  a  plan  to  bring  employers 
and  employees  closer  together,  to  establish  confidence  between  them 
by  removing,  if  possible,  the  causes  for  distrust  and  thus  to  benefit  both 
themselves  and  the  public  through  better  service.  It  proposes  a  more 
constructive  supervision  by  the  state  over  the  corporate  businesses 
of  North  Carolina. 

H.  B.  Endicott,  senior  member  of  the  Endicott-Johnson  Company, 
shoe  manufacturers,  has  said:  It  isn't  a  matter  of  capital  acceding  to 
the  demands  of  labor  or  of  labor  making  demands  upon  capital.  Capi- 
tal and  labor  are  arbitrary  terms  for  human  groups  who  have  human 
relationships  with  each  other.  The  crux  of  the  matter  lies  in  establish- 
ing a  relationship  of  understanding  and  confidence  between  the  two 
human  factors  in  industry. 

A  corporation  is  an  association  of  persons  organized  for  the  purpose 
of  doing  business  under  a  corporate  name,  with  charter  rights  con- 
ferred by  the  state.  In  this  paper  we  shall  consider  (1)  its  relations 
to  the  state,  and  (2)  its  relations  to  its  employees. 

The  Corporation  and  the  State 

A  corporation  has  powers  of  two  kinds.  (1)  To  act  in  a  corporate 
capacity  it  must  have  a  charter,  setting  out  in  full  the  powers  and 


126  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

privileges  granted;  and   (2)   it  has  such  implied  powers  as  are  neces- 
sary to  carry  out  the  purpose  for  which  the  corporation  was  created. 

The  Corporation  Commission  of  the  state  has  general  supervisory 
powers  over  the  corporations  of  the  state.  The  statute  says  that  the 
commission  shall  have  general  control  and  supervision  over  all  rail- 
road, street  railway,  steamboat,  canal,  express,  and  sleeping  car  com- 
panies or  corporations,  and  over  all  other  companies  or  corporations 
engaged  in  the  carrying  of  freight  or  passengers;  over  all  telegraph 
and  telephone  companies;  public  and  private  banks  and  loan  and  trust 
companies;  building  associations;  and  shall  have  power  to  require  all 
transportation  and  transmission  companies  to  establish  and  maintain 
such  public  service  facilities  and  conveniences  as  may  be  reasonable 
and  just.  It  further  provides  that  whenever  any  public  service  company 
or  corporation  embraced  in  this  chapter  has  a  controversy  with  another 
corporation  or  association  of  persons  and  all  the  parties  to  the  con- 
troversy agree  in  writing  to  submit  the  controversy  to  the  commis- 
sion to  arbitrate,  the  commission  shall,  after  due  notice  to  the  parties 
interested,  proceed  to  hear  the  same,  and  its  award  shall  be  final. 

Program  Proposals 

1.  The    above    provisions    give    the    State    Corporation    Commission 
general  supervisory  powers  over  the  public  service  corporations  of  the 
state.    In  practice  the  result  is  mere  negative  action  by  the  commision. 
The  Corporation  Commission  acts  mainly  as  a  court,  and,  therefore,  must 
wait  until  complaints  are  brought  to  it  for  settlement.    The  Corpora- 
tion Commission  should  be  an  active  investigating  body  to  see  that  the 
conditions,    rates,    facilities,   and    services    stipulated    in    corporation 
charters   are   established   and    maintained    by   the   corporations;    and 
when   controversies   arise   it   should  take  the  initiative  in   trying   to 
bring  the  parties  to  a  proper  understanding  rather  than  wait  until 
ill-feeling  result  in  a  deadlock.     It  is  true  that  the  decisions  of  the 
commission    may   not    and    possibly   can    not   be    final;    but   when   a 
thorough,    fair    and    impartial    investigation    is   made   and    the   facts 
are  published,   public   opinion   will  generally  force   the   party   in   the 
wrong  to  do  the  right  thing. 

2.  The   powers    of   the   Corporation    Commission    to    regulate    rates 
ought  also  to   be   enlarged.     At   present  the   burden   of  showing   the 
reasonableness  or  unreasonableness  of  a  rate  generally  rests  on  the 
public,  and  in  many  instances  great  injustice  is  done  because  of  the 
hardships  that  a  few  public-spirited  men  must  undergo  in  order  to  get 
the  case  of  the  public  squarely  before  the  commission.     This  procedure 
ought  to  be  changed  so  that  the  burden  of  showing  the  reasonableness 
or  unreasonableness  of  a  rate  would  be  on  the  corporation  making  the 
charge  and  not  on  the  public.     Before  a  public  service  corporation  en- 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  127 

forces  any  rate  it  should  first  have  the  consent  of  the  Corporation  Com- 
mission. This  would  tend  to  insure  just  rates.  It  would  save  a  few 
public-spirited  citizens  the  trouble  of  having  to  go  before  the  Corpora- 
tion Commission  and  fight  the  battles  of  the  public  for  higher  or  lower 
rates  as  the  justice  of  the  case  may  demand.  This  plan  would  also 
serve  to  give  immediate  relief  instead  of  waiting  for  a  case  to  take  its 
slow  course  up  through  the  courts. 

In  view  of  the  conditions  set  forth  above  we  recommend:  first,  that 
the  Corporation  Commission  be  reorganized  so  as  to  make  more  effec- 
tive the  powers  it  now  has;  second,  that  the  legislature  give  to  the 
Corporation  Commission  such  additional  powers  as  are  necessary  to 
enable  it  to  act  positively  and  not  merely  negatively;  third,  that  the 
burden  of  showing  the  reasonableness  or  the  unreasonableness  of  a  rate 
be  placed  on  the  corporation  making  the  charge  and  not  on  the  public. 

The  Corporation  and  Its  Employees 

No  one  familiar  with  the  march  of  events  during  the  last  few  years 
has  failed  to  note  the  necessity  for  a  definite  program  to  bring  im- 
provement in  labor  conditions  in  North  Carolina.  There  can  be  no 
settled  conditions  leading  to  increased  production  and  decreased  living 
costs  if  labor  and  capital  are  to  be  antagonists  instead  of  partners. 
Sound  thinking  and  an  earnest  desire  to  serve  the  interests  of  the 
whole  state,  as  distinguished  from  the  interests  of  a  class,  must  be 
applied  to  the  solution  of  this  great  and  pressing  problem.  The  failure 
of  employers,  and  in  many  instances  of  employees,  to  consider  this  mat- 
ter in  adequate  ways  has  produced  needless  bitterness,  jealousies,  and 
antagonisms.  Situations  of  this  sort  naturally  breed  labor  agitators, 
labor  organizations,  strikes  and  lockouts.  The  only  way  to  keep  men 
from  agitating  against  grievances  is  to  remove  the  grievance,  and  even 
this  precaution  does  not  succeed  when  walking  delegates  move  in  and 
start  up  trouble  in  times  of  general  unrest.  A  refusal  to  discuss  the 
matters  at  issue  provides  a  chance  for  professional  agitators  who  pro- 
voke disturbances  in  order  to  tempt  the  government  to  embark  on  a 
course  of  repression  and  retaliation. 

Charles  W.  Eliot  says:  From  the  highest  to  the  lowest  every  one 
must  be  actuated  by  a  sincere  and  earnest  desire  to  make  things  go. 
Employer  and  employee  alike  must  be  actuated  by  one  aim— to  make 
the  business  of  which  they  are  all  a  component  part  as  great  a  success 
as  possible.  The  reward  for  success  must  be  as  available  to  the  lowest 
man  in  the  scale  as  to  the  head  of  the  firm. 

John  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr.,  says:  I  believe  that  labor  and  capital  are 
partners,  not  enemies;  that  their  interests  are  common,  not  opposed; 
and  that  neither  can  attain  the  fullest  measure  of  prosperity  at  the 
expense  of  the  other,  but  only  in  association  with  each  other.  He  says 


128  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

further:  I  believe  that  the  provision  of  adequate  means  of  uncovering 
grievances  and  promptly  adjusting  them  is  of  fundamental  importance 
to  the  successful  conduct  of  industry- 
Quoting  again  from  H.  B.  Endicott:  There  will  be  no  happiness  and 
rest  in  industry  until  the  workers  cease  to  look  upon  the  employer  as 
their  enemy  and  until  the  employer  considers  his  employees  as  allies. 
Treat  a  man  as  a  man,  whether  he  deserves  that  treatment  or  not,  if 
you  want  to  get  any  results  of  lasting  value. 

Here  are  clear  and  concise  statements  by  men  of  keen  insight  con- 
cerning just  what  should  exist  in  our  industrial  establishments,  and 
the  inquiry  naturally  presents  itself  as  to  how  these  relationships 
can  be  brought  about.  The  principle  on  which  all  concerned  should 
deal  with  the  labor  question  appears  to  me  plain.  It  is  the  principle 
of  the  golden  rule.  I  think  the  formula  should  be  (1)  that  first  labor 
is  entitled  to  a  living  wage;  and  (2)  what  is  left  over  belongs  to  both 
capital  and  labor  in  such  proportions  as  fairness  and  equity  and  reason 
shall  determine  in  all  cases. 

Someone  will  ask  who  shall  distribute  this.  Let  all  corporations 
not  public  service  corporations  be  required  to  make  public  periodical 
statements  showing  the  business  done,  the  profits,  the  losses,  etc., 
and  then  let  the  State  Board  of  Arbitrations,  as  hereinafter  described, 
be  empowered  to  make  recommendations  (1)  as  to  what  is  a  living 
wage,  and  (2)  as  to  the  proper  share  of  labor  and  capital  in  what  is 
left  over.  We  would  not  recommend  that  these  recommendations  of 
the  board  be  compulsory;  merely  recommendatory. 

The  application  of  this  formula  is,  of  course,  complex  and  difficult, 
because  there  are  so  many  different  kinds  of  labor  and  so  many  different 
kinds  of  capital.  Frequently  labor  and  capital  overlap  and  merge  into 
one.  We  have  skilled  labor,  unskilled  labor,  and  casual  labor,  and  we 
have  the  small  employer,  the  large  individual  employer,  the  corporate 
employer,  etc.  And  then  circumstances  and  conditions  vary  greatly  in 
different  parts  of  the  country  and  in  different  industries. 

It  is  impossible  to  measure  by  the  same  yardstick  everywhere,  but 
the  principle  of  fairness  can  be  stated,  the  desire  can  be  stated  to  do 
everything  possible  to  bring  about  good  feeling  and  good  understanding 
between  labor  and  capital,  and  willingly  and  freely  to  cooperate  so  that 
labor  shall  receive  its  fair  share  of  the  fruits  of  industry,  not  only  as  a 
wage  return,  but  also  as  an  adequate  return  in  those  less  tangible 
things  that  make  for  contentment  and  happiness. 

The  workman  is  neither  a  machine  nor  a  commodity.  He  is  a  collab- 
orator with  capital.  He  must  be  given  an  effective  voice  in  determining 
jointly  with  the  employer  the  conditions  under  which  he  works,  either 
through  committees  in  each  factory,  or  through  labor  unions  or  through 
both.  Individual  capacity,  industry,  and  ambition  must  receive  en- 
couragement and  recognition.  The  employer's  attitude  should  not  be 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  "N.  C.  129 

one  of  patronage  or  grudging  concession,  but  frank  and  willing  recog- 
nition of  the  dignity  of  the  status  of  the  worker  and  of  the  consideration 
due  to  him  in  his  feelings  and  points  of  view. 

Whatever  is  necessary  to  infuse  interest  and  conscious  purpose  into 
his  work,  and  to  diminish  the  monotony  and  drudgery  of  his  daily  tasks 
ought  to  be  done.  The  closest  possible  contact  ought  to  be  maintained 
between  employer  and  employees.  Arrangements  for  the  adjustment 
of  grievances  ought  to  be  provided  and  the  plan  ought  to  work  smoothly 
and  instantaneously.  Every  possible  opportunity  must  be  given  to  the 
workman  to  be  informed  about  the  business  of  which  he  forms  a  part. 
He  must  not  be  deprived  of  his  employment  without  valid  cause.  For 
his  own  satisfaction  and  the  good  of  the  country  every  inducement  and 
facility  should  be  extended  to  him  to  become  a  home  and  property 
owner. 

Responsibility  nearly  always  has  a  sobering  and  usually  a  broadening 
effect.  I  believe  it  to  be  in  the  interest  of  labor,  capital,  and  the  public 
at  large  that  workmen  should  participate  in  industrial  responsibilities 
to  the  greatest  extent  compatible  with  the  maintenance  of  needful  order 
and  system  and  the  indispensable  unity  of  management.  Therefore, 
wherever  it  is  really  desired  by  the  employees  themselves  they  ought 
to  have  representatives  on  the  boards  of  directorship — at  least  when- 
ever it  is  practically  possible.  This,  I  think,  should  be  conceded.  It 
gives  labor  a  better  notion  of  the  problems,  complexities  and  cares 
which  the  employer  has  to  face.  It  would  tend  to  allay  the  suspicions 
and  to  remove  the  misconceptions  which  frequently  are  the  primary 
cause  of  trouble.  The  workmen  would  come  to  realize  that  capitalists  are 
not  quite  as  wise  and  deep  as  they  are  commonly  supposed  to  be,  but 
also  on  the  other  hand  that  they  are  a  good  deal  less  grasping  and 
selfish,  and  a  good  deal  more  decent  and  well-meaning  than  they  are 
usually  believed  to  be;  that  essentially  capitalists  and  wage  earners 
are  made  of  the  same  human  stuff. 

The  worker's  living  conditions  must  be  lifted  to  the  highest  possible 
level;  life  must  be  made  attractive  to  himself  and  his  family.  Nothing 
is  of  greater  importance.  To  provide  suitable  homes  for  employees  or 
workers  is  one  of  the  urgent  duties  of  the  employer. 

The  worker  must  be  relieved  of  the  dread  of  sickness,  unemployment, 
and  old  age.  It  is  inadmissible  that  because  industry  slackens,  or  old 
age  befalls  a  worker,  he  and  his  family  should  be  condemned  to  suffer- 
ing or  the  dread  of  suffering.  The  community  must  somehow  find 
ways  and  means  of  guaranteeing  that  any  man  fit  and  desirous  to  do 
an  honest  day's  work  shall  have  an  opportunity  to  earn  a  living.  Those 
unable  to  work  must  be  honorably  protected.  The  only  persons  on 
whom  a  civilized  community  has  a  right  to  turn  its  back  are  those  un- 
willing to  work. 


130  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

The  worker  must  receive  a  wage  which  not  only  permits  him  to 
keep  body  and  soul  together,  but  to  lay  by  something  for  -rainy  days, 
to  take  care  of  his  wife  and  children,  to  have  his  share  of  the  com- 
forts, joys,  and  recreations  of  life,  and  to  be  encouraged  in  the  arts 
and  rewards  of  thrift. 

Labor,  on  the  other  hand,  must  realize  that  high  wages  can  only  be 
maintained  if  high  production  is  maintained.  The  restriction  of  pro- 
duction is  a  sinister  and  destructive  fallacy,  and  most  of  all  it  reacts 
disastrously  on  labor. 

The  primary  economic  cause  of  poverty  is  under-production. 
Furthermore,  lessened  production  naturally  produces  high  living  costs. 
High  wages,  accompanied  by  a  proportionately  high  cost  of  living  essen- 
tials, do  the  worker  little  good,  while  they  do  the  rest  of  the  com- 
munity a  vast  deal  of  harm.  The  welfare  of  men  and  women  living 
on  moderate  incomes,  the  small  shopkeeper,  the  average  professional 
man,  and  the  farmer  is  just  as  important  to  the  community  as  that  of 
the  wage-earner. 

If  through  undue  exactions,  through  unfair  use  of  his  power,  through 
inadequate  output,  the  wage-earner  brings  about  a  condition  in  which 
the  pressure  of  high  prices  becomes  intolerable  to  the  middle  classes, 
he  will  create  a  class  animosity  against  himself  which  will  defeat  his 
purposes  in  the  long  run.  Precisely  the  same  holds  true  of  capital. 
Neither  can  afford  to  outrage  public  opinion,  in  a  land  where  public 
opinion  is  the  ultimate  authority. 

We  therefore  recommend  that  a  State  Board  of  Arbitration  be  estab- 
lished in  North  Carolina,  as  in  New  Zealand,  Canada,  or  Massachusetts, 
to  hear  serious  disputes  that  arise  between  employer  and  employee, 
to  make  impartial  investigations,  to  publish  the  facts  of  the  con- 
troversy and  the  conclusions  of  the  board,  and  to  investigate  working 
conditions  wherever  it  thinks  them  dangerous  to  the  welfare  of  the 
workmen.  Possibly  it  might  be  practicable  for  the  State  Corporation 
Commission  to  be  organized  into  just  such  a  board,  as  new  duties 
of  this  sort  jibe  with  the  present  powers  and  duties  of  this  commis- 
sion.— J.  V.  Baggett,  Chairman  Sub-Committee  on  Corporate  Business 
Organization. 

May  3d,  1920. 


CO-OPERATIVE  ORGANIZATION 

C.  I.  TAYLOR,  PIKEVILLE,  N.  C. 

There  have  been  three  kinds  of  industrial  organization  instituted  by 
man  in  his  attempt  to  utilize  the  forces  at  his  command  for  a  specific 
industry  or  for  all  industry.  These  three  according  to  the  informing 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  131 

element  of  control  in  each  are  the  Capitalistic  method,  the  Syndicalistic 
method,  and  the  Cooperative  method. 

1.  The  first  of  these,  the  Capitalistic  method  of  control,  has  long 
been  used  in  the  United  States  in  all  its  industries.    The  instrument 
for  binding  all   its  parts  together   is  the  corporation  and  the  trust. 
Indeed,  it  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  the  corporative  organization  in 
industry.     The  control  rests  entirely  with  the  owners,  and  in  propor- 
tion to  the  share  of  each  in  that  ownership.    The  earnings  of  the  in- 
dustry are  likewise  distributed  according  to  the  share  in  ownership. 
This  system  has  resulted  in  the  gradual  concentration  of  extraordinary 
wealth   in   the   hands   of   relatively   a   few   individuals   and    families. 
The  economic,  social,  and  political  ills  of  this  system  have  been  many 
and  grievous — not  because  it  is  wrong  in  itself,  but  because  capital 
is  thus  clothed  with  autocratic  authority  and  is  overly  tempted  to  use 
its  power  regardless   of  wage  earners   and   the   general  public   good. 
The  cumulative  results  of  capitalism  are  good  on  the  whole,  in  my 
opinion — indispensable  indeed  to  the  progress  of  stable  civilization. 

2.  Those   in   distress  have   urged   as   a  remedy,   that  labor   control 
industry  or  have  a  co-partnership  share  in  its  control.     Labor  offers 
two  methods  of  control;    (1)    Socialism,  that  is  that  the  government 
own  all  natural  resources,  the  sources  of  all  raw  materials,  and  oper- 
ate all  key  industries — for  instance  as  the  post  office  is  operated  in  the 
United  States,  or  the  public  schools  in  a  city  or  a  state;  and  (2)  Syn- 
dicalism, that  is  the  operatives  in  a  particular  industry  operate  it  for 
the  benefit  of  the  workers— for  service  and  not  for  profits,  as  their 
phrase  goes. 

In  neither  case  is  there  any  return  to  the  capital  invested  in  the 
business.  The  recent  upheaval  in  Italian  industries  was  syndicalistic. 
The  workers  took  control  of  many  industries,  only  to  find  in  the  end 
that  they  could  not  negotiate  the  final  problems  of  credit  and  sales- 
manship. Russia  adopted  Syndicalism.  The  Bolshevists,  who,  says 
Lenine,  are  less  than  five  percent  of  the  Russian  people,  seized  all 
the  industries  of  the  large  cities,  and  undertook  to  operate  them  as 
state  enterprises.  They  robbed  the  owners  outright  and  denied  them 
any  share  of  the  profits.  As  a  result  industries  fell  into  idleness,  pro- 
duction dwindled  to  zero  point,  and  the  bottom  dropped  out  of  Russian 
civilization.  Not  impossibly  the  time  may  come  when  America  may 
be  called  upon  to  choose  between  these  two;  the  one  a  despotism  of 
capital,  the  other  a  despotism  of  labor;  between  capitalism  and  Bol- 
shevism. 

3.  But  there  is  no  reason  for  going  to  an  extreme  when  there  is  a 
safe  middle  ground.     The  third  method  of  organization  and  control  in 
industry,  the  cooperative  method,  is  the  solid  middle  ground.     Accord- 
ing to  this  plan  the  owners  share  in  control  as  individuals  without 
regard   to  the   size   of  their   holding.     The  earnings   of  the   industry 


132  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

above  a  certain  return  on  the  capital  invested,  is  participated  in  by 
all  those  connected  with  the  industry,  including  the  customers,  and 
at  a  ratio  agreed  upon.  This  plan  has  never  been  tried  to  any  great 
extent  in  the  United  States  and  then  largely  without  success.  The 
Rochdale  or  Cooperative  Stories  in  Great  Britain  have  been  an  ac- 
knowledged, unquestioned  success. 

But  credit  is  a  condition  of  success  in  business.  Recognizing  this 
fact  Raiffeissen  devised  a  plan  for  cooperative  credit  unions  among 
farmers.  The  plan  was  successful.  In  a  few  years  it  was  extended 
to  small  wage  and  salary  earners  in  the  cities  under  the  title  of  Schulze- 
Delitzsch  banks.  Both  plans  have  been  tried  out  to  a  successful  con- 
clusion during  the  last  seventy-five  years.  These  cooperative  credit 
unions  have  accumulated  billions  of  resources  with  almost  no  losses — 
only  a  few  shillings  all  told.  The  Danes  have  always  been  been  an 
agricultural  people  but  the  balance  of  trade  was  continually  against 
them  and  poverty  was  everywhere.  Then  they  began  to  develop  co- 
operative business  organizations  in  agricultural  production,  manufac- 
ture, credit  and  markets,  these  organizations  all  being  adapted  to  their 
peculiar  needs.  Today,  Denmark  is  the  most  prosperous  of  all  the 
agricultural  nations  of  Europe.  She  has  the  most  complete  coopera- 
tive system  in  the  world.  The  Danish  farmers  operate  their  own 
ship  lines  to  London,  and  have  their  own  centers  of  distribution  to 
wholesale  and  retail  customers  in  Berlin,  London,  and  Paris. 

Beginnings  in  North  Carolina 

In  1915  the  Legislature  of  North  Carolina  enacted  a  cooperative 
enterprise  law  which  includes  cooperative  credit  unions,  town  and 
country.  This  law  created  a  Superintendent  of  Cooperative  Associa- 
tions and  Credit  Unions,  with  such  assistants  as  might  be  necessary. 
He  operates  under  the  joint  direction  of  the  Farm  Extension  Bureau 
of  the  state,  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture,  and  the  State  College  of 
Agriculture  and  Engineering.  Thus  the  law  placed  the  credit  unions 
in  friendly  hands  and  gave  them  a  chance  of  success  at  the  start.  How 
well  they  have  succeeded  is  shown  by  the  prosperous  condition  of  the 
thirty-one  cooperative  credit  unions  at  present.  Their  resources  in 
six  years  have  reached  a  total  of  nearly  $100,000. 

There  are  certain  rules  under  which  these  unions  must  be  organ- 
ized. Capital  is  sold  in  shares  not  exceeding  $25  par  value.  The 
unions  are  open  for  membership  to  all  citizens  of  the  community 
who  are  solvent  and  of  good  character,  provided,  however,  that  after 
organization  new  members  are  to  be  received  only  with  the  consent  of 
a  majority  of  the  existing  membership.  Membership  fees  become  a 
part  of  the  surplus  as  do  all  earnings  above  6  percent  on  the  capital 
stock.  The  control  is  in  the  hands  of  members  who  are  stockholders 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  133 

but  without  regard  to  the  size  of  their  individual  holdings.  Loans 
are  made  to  members  only,  and  when  loans  are  desired  of  more  than 
$50  security  must  be  given.  The  endorsement  of  a  fellow-member  is 
considered  sufficient  security  under  the  law. 

These  unions  are  enlarging  the  field  of  their  activity.  They  now 
purchase  fertilizers,  machinery,  and  supplies  for  their  members  and 
arrange  for  the  storage  and  shipment  of  their  products  at  proper  times. 
A  credit  union  once  established  in  a  community  can  increase  in  re- 
sources and  undertakings,  and  in  a  short  time  can  become  able  to  do 
any  or  all  of  the  many  kinds  of  work  now  undertaken  by  cooperative 
enterprises  in  general. 

There  has  been  a  cooperative  creamery  in  operation  at  Hickory, 
North  Carolina,  since  June,  1910.  This  venture  has  proven  a  great 
success;  but  its  greatest  success  came  after  the  Catawba  Rural  Credit 
Association  was  organized.  Today  there  are  in  Catawba  many  other 
successful  cooperative  enterprises. 

The  credit  union  has  not  been  used  in  the  towns  and  cities  of  the 
United  States  as  in  Europe.  The  need  for  such  unions  in  our  cities 
has  been  filled  to  some  extent  by  the  Morris  Plan  Banks.  But  if  the 
idea  of  cooperative  business  organization  in  general  develops  in  our 
cities  the  cooperative  credit  union  must  go  before  to  lay  the  founda- 
tions. 

But  just  now  our  greatest  need  is  not  to  make  the  city  more  pros- 
perous and  thus  to  entice  men  away  from  the  farms,  but  to  make  the 
country  more  prosperous,  and,  if  possible,  to  entice  city  people  back 
to  the  farms. 

The  Manufacturers'  Record  of  a  recent  date  carried  an  article  under 
this  caption,  Our  Greatest  Problem.  The  writer  urged  that  every  effort 
be  made  to  increase  the  supply  of  farm  products  in  the  United  States, 
saying:  "The  questions  of  the  League  of  Nations,  of  a  soldiers'  bonus, 
of  Democratic  or  Republican  supremacy  are  mere  soap  bubbles  blown 
by  children  as  compared  with  the  question  of  food  supply.  Higher  pay 
and  shorter  hours  for  industrial  workers  are  like  great  magnets  draw- 
ing men  and  women  from  the  farm  into  the  city,  decreasing  the  num- 
ber of  farm  producers  and  increasing  the  number  of  consumers  of  raw 
materials  and  foodstuffs.  Economic  forces  will  eventually  push  the 
price  of  food  so  high  that  starvation  and  revolution  are  imminent." 
He  urges  that  one  should  not  begrudge  the  farmer  the  prices  he  now 
receives  for  his  products,  but  on  the  contrary  should  endeavor  to  in- 
crease that  price  in  order  that  at  least  a  temporary  solution,  as  he 
believes,  may  be  had. 

The  Cooperative  Credit  Union  offers  cheaper  capital  as  an  immedi- 
ate solution  of  the  problem  of  farm  production,  in  this  way  actually 
increasing  his  profits  without  increasing  the  prices  he  now  receives 
for  his  products.  It  keeps  on  the  farm  the  savings  of  the  farmer  when 


134  STATE  KECONSTRTJCTION  STUDIES 

they  are  needed  there  and  adds  to  those  savings  by  cooperative  loans 
from  banks  when  the  need  arises.  The  credit  union  creates  an  effi- 
cient machinery  for  the  purchase  of  farm  supplies  and  for  the  most 
effective  distribution  of  the  farmer's  product. 

I  would  set,  then,  as  the  goal  of  the  Superintendent  of  Cooperative 
Organization  in  North  Carolina  a  cooperative  credit  union  in  every 
rural  community  in  the  state,  and  each  union  prosperous  and  fulfilling 
its  mission  in  its  community. 

Program  Proposals 

To  attain  this  end  I  recommend  that  he  do  two  things: 

First,  that  the  Superintendent  of  Cooperative  Organization  in  North 
Carolina  begin  a  state-wide  campaign  of  publicity  and  education  cover- 
ing the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  such  organizations  and  how  they 
may  be  attained;  that  he  endeavor  to  interest  in  this  movement  the 
teachers  of  the  state,  the  men  of  influence  in  their  respective  com- 
munities, such  as  school  officers  and  magistrates;  that  he  urge  upon 
each  farm-life  school  superintendent  the  importance  of  instruction  in 
cooperative  business  organization  as  applied  to  agriculture,  and,  should 
there  not  be  a  union  in  his  community  at  present,  that  he  attempt  to 
organize  one  as  soon  as  possible;  that  each  Farm  Demonstrator  be 
urged  to  cooperate  with  the  Superintendent  of  the  Farm-Life  School 
in  his  county,  and  with  the  State  Credit  Union  Superintendent  in  fur- 
thering the  organization  of  these  unions  and  in  extending  the  prin- 
ciple of  cooperative  organization  wherever  possible. 

Second,  that  a  portion  of  the  force  of  the  state  credit  union  bureau 
be  devoted  to  a  study  of  the  methods  and  principles  of  cooperative 
business  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  that  they  may  be  able  to 
anticipate  impending  troubles  and  to  furnish  adequate  remedies;  that 
the  bureau  cooperate  with  men  in  the  State  interested  in  and  possess- 
ing a  knowledge  of  cooperative  business  enterprise;  that  a  card  index 
be  kept  of  the  trained  men  available  each  year  for  work  in  this  field, 
the  extent  of  their  knowledge  and  experience,  and  where  they  can  be 
found  should  need  for  them  arise  in  North  Carolina. 

Third,  I  recommend  to  the  colleges  of  the  state,  especially  the 
University,  the  State  A.  and  E.  college  and  the  State  College  for  Wo- 
men, that  they  include  in  their  curricula  courses  in  cooperative 
business  organization  and  that  the  heads  under  whom  these  courses 
are  given  cooperate  with  the  State  Superintendent  of  Cooperative 
Organization. — C.  I.  Taylor,  Chairman  Sub-Committee  on  Cooperative 
Organization. 

May  17,  1920. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  JST.  C.  135 

CO-OPERATIVE  BUSINESS 

E.  C.  BRANSON,  CHAPEL  HILL,  N.  C. 

Cooperation  as  a  form  of  business  organization  sanctioned  by  law 
is  young  as  time  goes.  It  is  less  than  three-quarters  of  a  century 
old  in  any  land,  less  than  thirty  years  in  many  lands,  less  than  half 
a  dozen  years  old  in  North  Carolina.  Yet  in  every  country  where 
cooperative  business  has  been  intelligently  and  faithfully  tried  out 
it  has  been  proven  successful  beyond  debate. 

A  cooperation  is  legally  distinguished  from  a  corporation  by  two 
features:  (1)  by  the  one-man-one-vote  principle  of  organization  and 
control,  and  (2)  by  patronage  dividends  as  well  as  dividends  rated  on 
stock.  Every  cooperator  has  one,  and  only  one,  vote,  no  matter  how 
many  shares  of  stock  he  owns.  In  a  cooperation  the  majority  of  men 
is  what  counts;  in  a  corporation  it  is  the  majority  of  stock  that 
counts.  One  capitalizes  men,  the  other  capitalizes  money.  In  the 
second  place,  the  profits  of  cooperative  business  go  to  those  who  create 
them,  (1)  in  ratio  to  the  capital  stock  they  own,  and  (2)  in  ratio  to 
the  use  they  make  of  the  business  as  patrons.  Thus  in  a  cooperative 
credit  union  the  dividends  are  distributed  to  members  according  to 
the  amount  of  money  they  borrow  from  it  as  well  as  the  amount  of 
capital  they  invest  in  it;  in  a  corporation  the  direct  profits  go  to  the 
shareholders  alone.  Corporation  directors  who  declared  patronage 
dividends  would  be  violators  of  the  law;  but  cooperation  directors 
would  be  criminals  if  they  did  not  declare  patronage  dividends,  if  any 
such  dividends  were  in  their  treasury. 

Opposed  to  Socialism 

Another  thing:  a  cooperation  is  non-political,  and  wise  cooperators 
never  mix  politics  and  business.  Cooperation  is  also  a  social  enter- 
prise, but  cooperators  are  rarely  ever  socialists.  Intelligent  self-interest 
molds  their  actions  and  determines  their  policies.  They  are  usually 
home-owning,  home-loving  people,  and  they  cling  tenaciously  to  the 
rights  of  private  property  ownership.  You  could  never  bewitch  a  true 
cooperator  with  the  most  alluring  pictures  of  nationalized  wealth. 
Violent  social  or  political  upsettings  are  no  part  of  his  program. 

The  simple  fact  is  that  cooperation  is  the  opposite  of  both  socialism 
and  bolshevism,  just  as  Mr.  John  Sprunt  Hill  says.  It  is  not  only  an 
opposite,  but  an  antidote.  This  is  why  we  hold  to  the  belief  that 
Russia's  65,000  cooperatives  and  75,000,000  cooperators  are  the  salt 
that  will  at  last  salt  down  her  civilization  into  salvation.  In  the  end 
they  will  overthrow  both  socialism  and  bolshevism;  which  by  the  way 
is  not  socialism,  but  individualism  gone  mad. 

Cooperators  learn  slowly  and  cautiously,  but  in  foreign  countries 
at  least  they  learn  thoroughly.  Their  yearly  transactions  cover  every 


136  STATE  KECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

commodity  under  the  sun,  and  their  operations  run  into  billions.  They 
were  seven  billions  in  cooperative  credit  alone  in  central  Europe  the 
year  before  the  Great  War  broke  out. 

In  our  own  country  the  cooperator  learns  still  more  slowly.  Coopera- 
tive business  enterprise  in  many  parts  of  the  country  is  wholly  un- 
known, or  known  by  hearsay  only,  or  known  not  as  business  but  as 
an  empty  sentiment.  America  has  hardly  begun  as  yet  to  learn  co- 
operation upon  the  upper  levels  of  spiritual  enterprise. 

Cooperative  Credit  Unions 

The  Land  Bank  Law  passed  by  Congress  in  1916  and  the  Land  and 
Loan  Association  Law  of  the  North  Carolina  Legislature  in  1915 
cover  long-term  loans  upon  land  mortgages  at  low  rates  of  interest. 
These  laws  aid  the  owners  of  land  for  the  most  part. 

The  North  Carolina  Cooperative  Credit  Union  Law  covers  short- 
term,  personal,  credit  loans,  and  it  was  planned  to  aid  the  1,136,000 
people  in  North  Carolina  who  own  no  land. 

Cooperative  credit  unions  were  authorized  by  law  in  Canada,  Pro- 
vince of  Quebec,  in  1900;  in  Massachusetts,  1909;  in  Wisconsin,  1911; 
in  Texas,  1913;  in  New  York  State,  1914;  and  in  North  Carolina,  1915. 
The  recently  enacted  laws  upon  (1)  Credit  Unions,  (2)  Cooperative 
Enterprise,  and  (3)  Land  and  Loan  Associations,  put  North  Carolina 
in  the  forefront  of  progress  in  this  new  field  of  legislation. 

The  North  Carolina  Idea 

Credit-union  laws  in  American  states  show  progressive  and  more 
or  less  successful  adaptation  to  local  conditions  and  necessities.  But, 
so  far,  the  North  Carolina  law  is  the  best  of  them  all.  It  not  only 
gives  to  credit  unions  the  sanction  of  law,  but  it  creates  a  superin- 
tendent of  cooperative  associations  and  credit  unions,  with  such  as- 
sistants as  may  be  necessary,  whose  business  it  is  to  conduct  a  cam- 
paign of  education  and  promotion,  to  visit  interested  localities  upon 
request,  to  organize  cooperative  groups,  to  furnish  all  necessary  legal 
and  business  forms,  to  supervise  and,  once  a  year  or  oftener,  to  audit 
the  accounts  of  such  associations.  This  officer  belongs  to  the  Division 
of  Markets  operating  under  the  joint  committee  of  the  State  Farm 
Extension  Bureau,  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture  and  the  State  Col- 
lege of  Agriculture  and  Engineering.  His  salary,  comes  from  funds 
of  this  committee  and  levies  no  additional  burden  upon  the  taxpayers 
of  the  state. 

In  other  states  credit  unions  have  been  what  Mrs.  Wiggs  called  ash- 
barrel  babies.  They  have  come  into  being  in  chill  atmospheres,  and 
have  lacked  the  fostering  care  of  friendly  hands.  But  in  North  Caro- 
lina cooperative  credit  unions  are  the  special  charge  and  concern  of  the 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  !N".  C.  137 

agricultural  authorities  of  the  state.  They  are  sheltered  under  a 
hospitable  roof. 

Because  the  laws  in  other  states  require  no  such  friendly  state  de- 
partment to  promote,  organize,  and  supervise  the  credit  unions  they 
authorize,  the  movement  has  so  far  made  little  headway  among  the 
farmers.  Wage-earners  and  people  on  small  salaries  in  the  towns 
and  cities  have  organized  under  these  laws — some  thirty-five  in  Massa- 
chusetts, perhaps;  but  in  the  country  regions  credit  unions  in  America 
are  few. 

It  is  another  story  in  North  Carolina.  Already  there  are  thirty- 
three  farm  credit  unions — more  than  in  all  the  rest  of  the  United  States. 

A  Safe  Farm  Business  Organization 

The  Jews  are  keen,  competent  business  people.  And  Jewish  farmers 
were  the  first  country  people  to  organize  rural  credit  unions  in  Amer- 
ica— 18  unions,  with  547  members,  in  four  states.  In  1913  their  total 
capital  was  $10,000;  but  the  members  loaned  among  themselves  during 
the  year  $73,624.  The  borrowers  paid  only  6  percent  upon  their 
loans,  and  the  18  unions  earned  13^  percent  upon  the  capital  in- 
vested. When  Jews  try  out  a  business  proposition  and  find  it  sane, 
safe,  sound,  and  practicable,  little  room  is  left  for  argument  or  doubt. 

In  a  word,  cooperative  credit  unions  are  saving  and  mutual-loan 
associations.  They  operate  upon  the  capital  accumulated  by  the  thrift 
of  the  members  and  increased  by  the  business  management  of  the 
associations.  The  operating  capital  and  guaranty  funds  are  created 
by  payments  on  membership  shares,  by  deposits  received,  by  profits 
on  loans  to  members  at  a  low  rate  of  interest,  by  interest  on  reserve 
and  guaranty  funds  deposited  in  banks  on  savings  account,  by  the 
profits  arising  from  the  compounding  of  interest  in  the  business  of 
small,  low-rate,  short-term  loans  to  members;  by  entrance  fees  and 
transfer  fees;  and  by  fines  and  penalties. 

They  are  self-financing,  mutual-aid  organizations,  which  encourage 
and  reward  thrift  and  capitalize  the  character  of  their  membership. 
They  are  not  organized  to  make  profits,  but  to  guarantee  low  rates  of 
interest  to  members  of  meager  means.  They  are  not  banks.  Banks, 
says  Mr.  John  Sprunt  Hill,  are  aggregations  of  money;  credit  unions 
are  aggregations  of  men. 

Principles  of  Organization 

All  members  share  equally  in  privileges  and  ratably  in  profits.  The 
one-man-one-vote  principle  is  fundamental.  Profits  are  rated  (1)  ac- 
cording to  holdings  of  paid-up  shares,  and  (2)  according  to  the  busi- 
ness the  cooperators  do  with  the  unions.  In  voting  each  member  has 
one  vote,  no  matter  how  many  shares  he  owns.  The  liability  of  mem- 


138          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

bers  is  the  usual  liability  under  the  banking  laws  of  North  Carolina, 
not  the  unlimited  liability,  joint  and  several,  of  credit  unions  in  the 
Old  World  countries. 

Seven  persons  or  more  in  any  neighborhood,  district,  or  establish- 
ment may  organize — farmers,  clerks,  mechanics,  anyone.  Successful 
operation  requires  at  least  twenty-five  members.  The  larger  the  mem- 
bership the  greater  the  chances  of  success,  provided  the  members  know 
intimately  one  another's  character,  reputation,  and  needs.  Identity 
of  occupation,  interest,  location,  or  association  is  necessary.  Members 
must  have  good  moral  character  and  a  reputation  for  industry,  honesty, 
and  sobriety. 

Membership  shares  are  small,  from  $5  to  $25,  at  the  will  of  each 
union.  They  may  be  paid  for  upon  an  installment  plan.  Entrance 
fees  are  10  cents  a  share  or  more,  according  to  the  value  of  the  share. 
Shares,  fees,  and  fines  are  all  small,  because  the  members  of  credit 
unions  are  people  of  small  means  with  slender  chances  to  save,  who 
from  time  to  time  need  to  borrow  small  sums  for  brief  periods  for 
productive  purposes  or  to  meet  sudden  needs. 

Usually  under  such  circumstances  the  daily  wage-earner  or  the 
man  upon  small  salary,  or  the  landless  tenant,  or  the  homeless  man, 
is  without  credit  of  any  sort  or  he  must  pay  impossible  interest  rates 
for  money.  These  various  classes  with  their  families  number  1,136,000 
people  in  North  Carolina;  and  they  need  to  establish  their  own  credit, 
that  is  to  say,  financial  and  moral  trustworthiness,  upon  the  basis  of 
thrift  and  character.  There  is,  indeed,  no  other  basis  of  credit,  which 
means  ability  and  willingness  to  pay  what  is  due  exactly  when  it 
is  due. 

The  capital  such  people  can  create  in  the  beginning  will  be  small. 
But,  as  the  Scotch  proverb  says,  Many  a  mickle  makes  a  muckle.  For 
instance,  in  1913  a  thousand  banks  in  the  United  States  collected 
$40,000,000  in  pennies  from  the  children's  Christmas  clubs. 

The  Book  warns  us  not  to  despise  the  day  of  small  things.  The 
year  the  Great  War  began  there  were  65,000  cooperative  credit  unions 
in  Europe,  with  15,000,000  members  and  an  annual  business  of  some 
$7,000,000,000.  It  has  taken  66  years  to  develop  the  strength  of  such 
organizations  in  the  Old  World  countries;  but  in  North  Carolina,  with 
the  active  campaign  of  promotion  provided  by  law,  cooperative  credit 
unions  can  develop  great  strength  in  a  very  few  years. 

The  Necessity  for  Credit  Unions 

The  farm  regions  of  the  South  need  to  be,  in  far  larger  measure, 
self-feeding  and  self-financing.  Both  are  fundamentally  necessary 
if  we  are  ever  to  accumulate  wealth  in  the  countryside  and  achieve 
permanent  farm  prosperity.  In  an  average  year  we  produce  $1,000,- 
000,000  of  wealth  in  our  cotton  crop  alone;  but  we  send  some  $900,- 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  TJ.  OF  N".  C.  139 

000,000  out  of  the  South  every  year  for  imported  feed  and  foodstuffs. 
It  is  a  spendthrift  system;  it  is  economic  insanity,  says  Hon.  Clarke 
Howell.  And  truly  he  is  right  about  it. 

In  proof,  look  at  the  per  capita  wealth  of  the  people  of  our  country 
regions.  It  ranged  from  $230  in  Alabama  to  $829  in  Oklahoma  in  1910. 
These  figures  are  pitifully  small  when  compared  with  the  per  capita 
wealth  of  the  country  population  in  the  country  at  large — $994; 
$2,555  in  Illinois,  or  $3,685  in  Iowa.  In  taxable  wealth  the  whites  of 
North  Carolina  were  worth  only  $344  apiece  in  the  census  year,  or  $31 
less  than  in  1860 — in  Georgia,  $123  less. 

But  the  change  in  our  crop  systems  must  be  made  gradually,  and 
just  as  gradually  we  must  become  self-financing  in  our  farm  regions. 
The  long-term,  land-bank  law  passed  by  Congress  offers  relief  for 
the  land-owning  farmers;  the  state  credit-union  laws  offer  relief  to 
farm  tenants  and  city  wage-earners. 

The  McRae  Credit-Union  Law  in  North  Carolina  offers  relief  for 
our  landless,  homeless  multitudes.  If  they  would  be  free  of  crop- 
lien  thraldom  and  time-credit  prices,  a  beginning  must  be  made  in 
thrift;  and  small  savings  by  industrious,  sober  people  of  good  char- 
acter must  be  assembled  and  managed  in  business-like  ways  under 
the  guidance  of  friendly  authority.  Cooperative  credit  unions  in  North 
Carolina  are  organized,  standardized,  conducted  under  guidance,  super- 
vised, and  audited  under  the  laws  of  the  state. 

We  need  the  discipline  of  thrift.  We  need  what  the  New  England 
Yankees  have.  For  instance,  the  bank-account  savings  of  New  Hamp- 
shire alone  are  larger  than  the  sums  deposited  on  savings  accounts 
in  banks  of  all  sorts  in  the  entire  South.  There  are  savings  banks  in 
the  South  and  savings  departments  in  almost  every  bank;  but  not  a 
single  mutual-savings  bank  in  any  Southern  state.  We  have  joint- 
stock  banks,  but  not  mutual-savings  banks.  Strange,  but  so  it  is. 
Hence  the  necessity  for  cooperative  credit  unions.  These  are  savings 
and  mutual-loan  associations,  and  they  are  needed  in  this  and  every 
other  Southern  state. 

Carolina  Credit  Unions 

Such  credit  unions  are  making  notable  headway  in  North  Carolina. 
The  first  one  was  organized  at  Lowe's  Grove,  Durham  County,  Decem- 
ber 10,  1915,  with  twelve  members.  On  the  twelfth  day  of  the  follow- 
ing January  this  credit  union  had  26  members,  had  received  $255 
paid  in  on  shares,  and  had  total  resources  of  $1,602. 

In  his  statement  of  November  15,  1920,  the  State  Superintendent  of 
Cooperative  Enterprise  shows  that  there  are  now  33  credit  unions 
in  North  Carolina,  with  1,388  members.  They  have  paid  in  $21,216 
on  shares,  $50,824  on  deposit,  and  their  total  resources  are  $99,764. 
All  this  in  four  years.  What  will  the  totals  be  in  the  next  forty  years? 


140          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Feedstuffs,  fertilizers,  and  seed  are  bought  cooperatively  by  these 
credit-union  cooperatives.  The  farmers'  money  is  loaned  among  them- 
selves for  farm  improvements  and  equipment.  The  total  interest 
rate  charged  is  6  percent,  and  interest  at  4  percent  is  paid  to  depositors 
for  the  use  of  their  money. 

These  farmer-cooperators  do  more  than  mere  borrowing  and  lend- 
ing. They  learn  to  trust  one  another  and  to  deal  sagaciously  with 
one  another  and  with  outsiders  according  to  approved  methods  of 
business.  These  credit  unions  are  making  business  men  out  of  our 
farmers.  They  learn  how  to  save  and  assemble  resources,  how  to 
organize  a  credit  machinery,  and  how  to  market  credit  among  them- 
selves. They  learn  the  value  of  accounting,  of  keeping  track  of  what 
they  earn  and  what  they  spend.  The  whole  family  gets  into  habits  of 
industry  and  thrift.  The  whole  neighborhood  develops  social  virtues 
and  habits.  Group  life  grows  and  flowers  graciously  in  cooperative 
credit  communities.  If  you  doubt  it  move  about  a  little  in  the  Lowe's 
Grove  or  Valdese  communities. 

Negro  Credit  Unions 

Pour  of  our  33  credit  unions  in  North  Carolina — The  Piedmont, 
Franklin,  Cleveland,  and  Gold  Hill  unions — are  composed  of  161  negro 
cooperators  all  told.  On  February  20,  1920,  their  total  payments  on 
shares  amounted  to  $1,355.15,  their  deposits  to  $520.15;  their  loans  to 
$1,015.95,  and  resources  to  $1,095.90.  But  their  depositors  numbered 
only  7  and  their  borrowers  only  20 — which  means  that  the  colored 
people,  like  all  cooperators  everywhere,  are  beginning  timidly.  De- 
posits and  loans  are  the  basis  of  dividends  in  a  banking  business.  Both 
are  evidences  of  faith,  and  both  increase  as  cooperators  try  out  cau- 
tiously the  credit  machinery  they  have  established — as  they  know  one 
another  better  and  trust  one  another  more.  We  walk  by  faith  in 
business  just  as  certainly  as  we  do  in  religion,  and  an  absence  of  faith 
means  alike  no  business  and  no  religion. 

A  cooperative  credit  union  with  no  depositors  and  no  borrowers, 
as  at  Gold  Hill,  has  no  business  basis  and  no  excuse  for  existence. 
It  would  earn  no  dividends  for  its  cooperators  in  a  thousand  years. 
The  Piedmont  Union,  with  three  depositors  and  fourteen  borrowers 
is  moving  off  properly.  The  union  with  the  most  members,  the  most 
depositors,  the  most  borrowers,  the  largest  deposits  and  the  largest 
loans  is  the  union  that  will  of  course  earn  the  largest  dividends. 

However,  the  assembling  of  resources  and  the  marketing  of  credit  is 
a  hard  lesson  slowly  learned  everywhere.  The  beginning  the  Carolina 
negroes  have  made  is  distinctly  creditable.  If  they  rise  to  their  op- 
portunity, the  number  of  farm-owning  negroes  will  quickly  rise  from 
a  third  of  the  negro  farmers,  as  at  present,  to  a  full  half  or  two- 
thirds  within  a  generation  in  North  Carolina. 


]SToRTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  141 

CIVIC  ORGANIZATION:    OUK  TOWNS  AND  CITIES 

W.  E.  PRICE,  WENTWOETH,  N.  C. 
Ground  Work 

The  figures  of  the  1920  census  are  now  appearing  daily.  A  new  and 
stronger  light  is  brought  to  bear  upon  the  startling  growth  of  the 
cities  and  towns  of  North  Carolina  during  the  last  decade.  Winston- 
Salem  has  spurted  ahead  until  it  is  almost  in  the  50,000  class.  The 
other  larger  places,  that  we  class  with  Winston-Salem,  have  expanded 
almost  as  rapidly.  Yet  it  is  not  in  our  large  civic  communities  that 
the  most  significant  growth  is  found.  It  is  in  the  small  industrial 
communities  of  the  state.  We  suddenly  wake  up  and  find  North 
Carolina  thickly  dotted  with  thriving  little  manufacturing  towns  that 
twenty  years  ago  were  not  in  existence. 

There  has  come  upon  us  gradually  one  of  the  most  significant  move- 
ments in  modern  times.  North  Carolina,  in  the  days  before  The  War 
Between  the  States,  and  in  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  was 
almost  wholly  rural.  Towns  of  even  small  size  were  few  and  far 
between.  In  1910,  after  some  few  years  of  remarkable  city  and  town 
growth,  our  population  was  still  79  percent  rural.  Only  twenty-one 
people  out  of  the  hundred  dwelt  in  any  kind  of  incorporated  community. 
Seventy-nine  lived  in  single  family  groups  out  in  the  open  country. 
And  yet  in  1910  the  census  figures  showed  clearly  that  the  tide  was 
running  to  the  cities.  In  ten  years  our  urban  population  had  increased 
more  rapidly  than  in  thirty-six  other  states.  The  growth  of  the  city 
population  in  North  Carolina  between  1900  and  1910  was  four  and  a 
half  times  the  growth  of  our  country  population.  During  the  last 
ten  years  our  town  dwellers  have  increased  in  number  six  times  faster 
than  our  open  country  dwellers;  54  percent  against  9  percent.  Ride 
from  Wilmington  to  Raleigh  and  then  through  Durham,  Greensboro 
and  Concord  to  Charlotte,  and  then  westward  through  Gastonia.  The 
state  appears  to  be  a  nest  of  industrial  plants  that  line  the  railroad 
in  an  almost  continuous  procession.  This  is  a  remarkable  change 
from  the  rural  North  State  of  twenty  years  ago. 

Picture  to  yourself  a  tremendous  reaphook,  with  a  long  sweeping 
curve  and  a  broad  blade.  Lay  it  upon  North  Carolina  with  the  point 
just  below  Raleigh  and  the  inside  sweep  of  its  blade  passing  along 
the  bend  of  the  Southern  Railroad  through  Greensboro  to  Charlotte 
and  the  outside  curve  sweeping  along  to  the  northward  embracing 
Spray  and  Winston-Salem  and  then  south  to  Charlotte.  Imagine  the 
handle  extending  westward  from  Charlotte  to  Gastonia  and  covering 
the  industrial  area  near  it  and  further  west.  In  the  surface  of  that 
blade  would  be  contained  the  area  of  the  state  that  has  shown  the 
most  striking  urban  development.  In  the  last  two  decades  cotton  mills, 


142          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

tobacco  working  plants,  furniture  factories,  and  many  other  kinds  of 
industrial  enterprises  have  sprung  up  overnight  and  converted  corn- 
fields and  woodlands  into  hustling  young  cities.  North  Carolina  has 
become  the  best  developed  industrial  state  of  the  South. 

It  is  the  modern  industrial  era  that  has  at  last  caught  the  state 
in  its  world-wide  progress.  Industry  can  be  practiced  only  where 
there  are  people  in  sufficient  number  to  man  its  machines,  and  in  the 
South  this  means  densely  populated  areas  of  white  farm  tenants. 
A  factory  is  built  near  the  railroad.  A  group  of  houses  huddles 
around  it.  A  station  is  built.  More  factories  come.  The  community 
is  incorporated.  Streets  are  laid  off.  Schools  and  churches  are 
built,  and  the  town  is  born.  Carrboro  at  our  doors  is  a  mushroom 
growth  of  the  last  ten  years.  Kannapolis  and  a  host  of  others  are  of 
the  same  brood.  With  the  birth  of  new  towns  has  come  the  amazing 
expansion  of  the  older  towns.  The  labor  demands  of  the  factories 
have  drawn  the  people  of  the  state  from  the  farm  to  the  city.  The 
call  of  the  factory  is  strong  at  present,  and  country  people  are  answer- 
ing the  call.  The  forces  that  put  meaning  and  strength  into  the  city- 
ward attraction  may  be  found  in  the  dissatisfactions  and  the  desires 
of  the  farming  folk  of  the  state. 

The  country  pushes  them  into  the  city.  The  city  attracts  them. 
This  is  a  time  when  folks  like  to  live  together.  It  is  the  stagnant 
loneliness  of  the  country  that  repels  men  and  women.  To  the  farmer 
shut  off  by  miles  of  solitude  from  the  nearest  neighbor,  working  alone 
in  the  big  field;  and  to  his  wife  wearily  treading  the  dreary  round  of 
household  duties  with  none  of  the  modern  conveniences  at  hand,  even 
the  life  of  a  mill  village  looks  attractive  and  desirable.  Dirty-looking 
standard  houses  with  dingy  windows  and  grassless  yards  can  be  easily 
endured  if  there  is  present  the  chance  to  talk  with  a  neighbor  and  to 
absorb  the  noise  and  the  color  and  the  light  of  the  city.  Whatever 
the  cause,  the  people  of  North  Carolina  are  leaving  the  country  and 
moving  into  the  industrial  communities  of  the  state. 

Our  Towns  and  Cities 

This  particular  study  deals  with  the  organization  of  the  cities  and 
towns  of  this  state.  Under  the  pressure  of  the  new  flood  of  population 
the  old  loose  organizations  and  customs  of  town  life  have  proved 
inefficient  and  inadequate.  Bungling  uncertainty  characterizes  every 
movement  made  by  communities  that  have  outgrown  their  old  order 
of  living.  There  is  need  of  a  new  way. 

In  advancing  any  proposals  for  the  reorganization  of  our  cities  and 
towns  we  are  assuming  that  our  cities  and  towns  are  eager  for  a  bet- 
ter way.  The  making  of  a  community  is  in  the  hands  of  its  citizens. 
If  they  are  interested  in  improvement  everything  is  possible;  if  they 
are  indifferent  and  apathetic  the  only  prospect  is  laxness  in  govern- 


ISToETH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  TT.  OF  N.  C.  143 

ment  and  temptations  to  petty  graft.  Inefficient  administration  and 
corrupt  practices  are  inevitable  if  the  citizens  of  the  community  do 
not  give  a  hang  one  way  or  the  other.  If  I  could  I  would  drive  this 
truth  home  to  everybody  in  the  state.  It  is  only  to  a  city  whose  citi- 
zens are  alert  that  the  advantages  of  the  best  city  life  can  come. 

Interest  is  a  matter  of  civic  sense  and  pride,  and  civic  sense  is  the 
outgrowth  of  education.  The  school  children  of  every  community 
should  thoroughly  study  the  problems  of  their  home  town,  its  forms 
of  government,  its  values  and  deficiencies — as  for  instance  the  children 
of  North  Wilkesboro  have  been  doing  of  late.  Ignorance  slays  interest. 
Knowledge  creates  visions  of  progress.  The  ordinary  citizen  does  not 
know  and  never  has  been  urged  to  learn  about  the  powers  and  duties 
of  the  officials  whom  he  elects  to  guide  his  own  community.  How- 
ever we  go  about  it,  we  must  contrive  to  get  people  of  North  Carolina 
interested  in  governing  themselves,  for  until  they  shake  off  their 
apathy  the  gateway  of  abuse  is  wide  open  and  an  invitation  is  ex- 
tended to  the  boss  and  the  ring  to  march  in  and  make  themselves  at 
home. 

We  propose  to  treat  the  city  and  the  town  as  distinct  civic  organi- 
zations. They  are  beset  with  many  of  the  same  evils,  but  there  are 
differences  of  quality  and  degree,  and  in  methods  of  reform.  Let  us 
take  a  city  to  be  any  incorporated  community  that  is  5,000  or  more 
in  population,  and  the  town  to  be  civic  communities  smaller  than 
5,000.  There  are  several  reasons  for  making  5,000  the  dividing  line. 
Thus,  communities  with  more  than  5,000  inhabitants  may  be  counted 
on  as  based  largely  on  industry  as  their  chief  concern,  although  some 
communities  of  this  size  depend  almost  entirely  upon  the  trade  area 
of  the  surrounding  farm  regions.  Usually  when  a  community  passes 
the  5,000  mark  it  loses  the  small-town  air  and  way  of  life.  No  longer 
is  every  citizen  a  personal  acquaintance  of  every  other.  In  the  little 
town  it  is  impossible  to  elect  a  mayor  who  is  not  personally  known 
to  every  voter.  When  the  place  moves  beyond  the  5,000  mark  there 
is  a  diminishing  chance  for  all  voters  to  have  the  intimate  small- 
town knowledge  of  candidates.  The  city  is  too  large  to  be  personal. 
The  small  town  is  too  small  to  be  strange. 

I.    City  Reforms 

Can  you  not  vividly  recall  to  your  mind  the  successive  impressions 
that  force  themselves  upon  you  as  you  ride  through  the  average 
North  Carolina  city?  The  open  country  gives  way  to  a  straggling 
array  of  houses  that  line  themselves  up  along  the  roads  that  lead 
into  the  city.  A  factory  or  two  flashes  by  the  train  window  and  a 
series  of  battered,  dull  huts  are  seen  extending  in  a  long  succession. 
The  negro  settlements  are  usually  along  the  railroad  tracks.  There 
is  no  more  mean,  sordid  picture  in  the  state  than  most  cities  present 


144          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

in  the  areas  given  over  to  our  colored  populations — areas  rejected  by 
the  city  and  left  as  a  kind  of  refuse  pit  to  be  visited  only  after  a  criminal 
outburst,  or  only  to  be  seen  by  the  curious  traveler.  After  negro- 
town  is  passed  there  flashes  by  a  nightmare  of  warehouses,  storage 
buildings,  deserted  dwellings,  active  mills,  and  factories.  Streets  cut 
down  to  track  levels  in  dangerous  and  unsightly  crossings.  The 
bedraggled  station  is  a  relief  from  the  confusion  of  the  meaningless 
social  mixture  that  we  have  witnessed. 

When  the  town  is  explored,  we  find  beautiful  homes  and  splendid 
office  buildings,  but  there  is  an  atmosphere  of  chance  about  the  whole 
structure  of  the  place.  The  streets  twist  curiously.  The  city  hall  is 
where  you  would  least  expect  it.  The  railroad  station  is  placed  where 
it  was  easiest  to  build  and  not  where  it  could  render  the  best  service. 
The  North  Carolina  city  looks  as  if  it  had  just  happened,  as  if  there 
had  been  no  conscious  element  of  growth  at  work.  The  population 
has  grown  and  business  has  expanded,  and  as  each  new  need  has 
arisen  it  has  been  satisfied,  with  no  attention  paid  to  the  appearance 
or  the  needs  of  the  city  as  a  whole. 

Each  year  the  newspapers  of  the  state  take  up  the  tale  of  the 
activities  of  our  cities  and  always  the  burden  of  their  song  is  "trying 
to  catch  up  with  demand."  School  systems  become  inadequate  before 
relief  is  planned.  New  streets  are  laid  or  widened  only  when  the  need 
is  imperative.  A  water  famine  or  a  great  fire  is  usually  necessary 
to  awaken  interest  in  securing  a  sufficient  water-supply  system.  The 
city  in  its  activities  has  shown  no  disposition  to  look  ahead.  Every- 
body has  been  busy  with  his  own  personal  affairs  and  fortunes;  no- 
body has  been  thinking  about  the  city  as  a  whole. 

When  we  come  to  examine  the  failure  of  the  city  to  grow  in  strength, 
health,  and  beauty  as  it  has  grown  in  size,  we  find  that  the  chief  rea- 
son for  the  failure  has  been  the  lack  of  a  clean,  driving,  efficient  head. 
The  mayor  and  the  alderman  have  ruled  the  cities  of  North  Carolina 
and  as  a  rule  they  have  ruled  them  badly.  The  aldermanic  system  has 
made  so  many  failures,  the  pertinent  query  is,  Is  not  the  aldermanic 
system  itself  an  inefficient  form  of  government? 

Under  it  the  individual  voter  is  called  upon  to  vote  for  a  long  list 
of  officers  of  all  grades,  from  mayor  to  the  most  insignificant  clerk. 
Voting  in  the  dark  is  the  result,  for  most  men  spend  little  time  on 
politics  and  politicians,  and  most  voters  know  little  or  nothing  about 
the  qualifications  of  the  various  office  seekers.  When  the  citizen  casts 
his  ballot  blindly  he  reduces  to  zero  his  influence  upon  the  officials 
elected.  If  the  qualifications  of  the  man  are  doubtful  or  negligible, 
if  his  duties  and  responsibilities  are  ill-defined,  he  is  apt  to  feel  free 
to  direct  the  affairs  of  his  office  in  any  fashion  that  his  personal  pref- 
erences may  dictate. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  1ST.  C.  145 

The  aldermanic  system  is  a  ward  system,  and  it  easily  lends  itself 
to  ward  bosses,  and  graft.  It  is  the  farthest  possible  remove  from 
business  efficiency  in  city  administration.  The  little  boss,  through 
his  ring  of  heelers  and  personal  followers,  can  secure  a  permanent 
control  over  a  section  of  the  city.  Most  of  the  evils  of  partisan  city 
government  have  arisen  directly  from  the  organization  of  the  ward 
bosses  into  a  city  machine  that  misdirects  the  affairs  of  the  com- 
munity in  any  line  that  may  satisfy  the  desires  of  the  men  behind 
the  scene. 

As  the  city  has  grown,  new  duties  have  come  to  the  city  govern- 
ment. The  government  has  not  expanded  in  any  orderly  way.  Officers 
and  commissions  have  been  tacked  on  in  the  most  convenient  manner. 
The  mayor  and  the  council  so  check  and  balance  each  other  that 
essential  reforms  are  hard  to  secure  and  any  kind  of  change  receives 
a  long  deliberation.  But  worst  of  all,  when  necessary  things  are  not 
done,  or  when  they  are  done  wrongly,  nobody  knows  exactly  who  is 
to  blame.  Program  Proposals 

1.  The  City  Manager. — The  first  proposal  for  reorganizing  city  gov- 
ernment is  the  adoption  of  the  commission-manager  form  of  govern- 
ment for  all  cities  with  5,000  inhabitants  or  more. 

Of  late  years  the  commission  form  of  government  has  developed  into 
the  commission-manager  plan.  The  idea  is  sweeping  the  country. 
Already  185  American  cities  have  adopted  it.  Nine  of  these  are  in 
North  Carolina,  as  follows:  Goldsboro,  Elizabeth  City,  Hickory,  Mor- 
ganton,  High  Point,  Thomasville,  Morehead  City,  Gastonia,  and  Tar- 
boro.  More  and  more  dissatisfaction  is  being  expressed  over  the 
futility  and  the  waste  of  aldermanic  city  government.  In  brief,  the 
provisions  of  the  commission-manager  plan  are: 

The  voters  in  a  general  election,  and  not  by  wards,  choose  a  small 
body  of  commissioners,  generally  three  or  five. 

These  commissioners  secure  the  services  of  a  highly  trained  man 
to  act  as  the  city  manager.  The  manager  is  liable  to  discharge  at  the 
hands  of  the  commissioners  if  at  any  time  they  think  he  is  incom- 
petent or  untrustworthy. 

The  manager  is  the  administrator  of  the  city's  business.  He  appoints 
all  the  subordinate  officers.  They  are  responsible  to  him  for  efficient 
service. 

The  manager  may  be  discharged  or  the  commissioners  recalled  in 
case  25  percent  of  the  voters  so  petition  and  if  their  petition  is 
given  a  majority  vote  in  a  general  election.  By  the  same  method 
ordinances  may  be  forced  upon  the  commissioners  and  objectionable 
ordinances  defeated. 

The   commissioners   pass  the  ordinances.     They   fix  the  tax   rates. 
They  inspect  the  work  of  the  manager  and  call  upon  him  for  reports 
of  work  done  and  accounts  of  money  expended. 
10 


146          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Even  from  this  brief  outline  the  advantages  of  the  system  may 
readily  be  seen.  It  is  a  plan  to  place  the  affairs  of  the  city  in  the 
hands  of  an  efficient  business  organization  with  a  single  responsible 
head.  Unified  government  is  assured.  A  budget  can  be  adopted  and 
a  proper  accounting  system  installed.  The  taxpayers  can  be  given 
their  money's  worth.  The  executive  can  look  ahead  and  see  the  needs 
of  the  future,  and  seeing  the  needs  can  make  intellignt  provision  for 
them.  This  proposal  is  not  mere  theory.  In  cities  all  over  the  land 
these  benefits  are  being  realized. 

2.  A  Federation  of  Service  Agencies  and  a  City  Survey.— Our  second 
proposal  is  that  the  city  government  organize  the  service  bodies  of 
the  community  to  make  a  searching  survey  of  the  economic,  social, 
and  civic  conditions  and  problems  of  the  city,  and  to  plan  its  future 
in  detail;  in  short,  to  substitute  a  reasoned  way  of  progress  for  aimless 
drift  in  city  development. 

The  Carolina  city  can  certainly  achieve  no  orderly  growth  until  it 
knows  itself  thoroughly,  what  it  is  and  what  it  can  become.  The  city 
government  should  organize  the  service  bodies  of  the  city  to  take  an 
auto-survey  of  every  phase  of  city  life.  The  chamber  of  commerce 
and  kindred  organizations  can  best  conduct  the  survey  of  the  busi- 
ness strength  or  weakness  of  the  city  and  of  the  back-country  market 
and  producing  area.  The  industrial  wealth  and  health  of  the  city 
and  the  probable  expansion  of  industry  can  be  judged  by  the  indus- 
trial organizations  better  than  by  any  other  agency.  The  social  survey 
would  best  be  in  the  hands  of  the  local  social  service  societies,  clubs, 
and  associations,  such  as  the  Red  Cross  Chapter,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the 
community  council,  or  the  public  welfare  board. 

The  survey  of  the  social  institutions  of  the  city  should  be  in  the 
hands  of  the  service  bodies  that  are  interested  primarily  in  the 
schools,  the  churches,  and  the  home  of  the  city;  school  betterment 
associations,  women's  clubs,  the  Rotary  Club,  and  so  on. 

The  city  government  should  inspire  and  direct  these  researches. 
Let  the  town  authorities  call  together  the  representatives  of  these 
various  service  agencies  and  organize  them  into  an  auto-survey  body. 
When  they  are  organized  the  city  should  give  them  every  encourage- 
ment and  every  aid  so  that  a  complete  analysis  of  the  city  and  its  back 
country  may  be  at  hand.  In  this  way  the  people  of  the  city  may 
hope  to  become  a  choice  business  and  residence  center.  The  results 
of  the  survey  should  be  graphed  and  pictured  so  that  the  most  ignorant 
citizen  can  see  their  meaning.  How  can  a  community  secure  ade- 
quate parks  and  schools  or  a  well-defined  industrial  district  if  the 
men  and  women  in  the  city  do  not  know  what  the  city  needs,  and 
what  is  desirable  and  feasible?  How  can  a  city  plan  its  streets  or 
the  construction  of  its  buildings  if  the  streets  are  laid  out  only  after 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  147 

the  city  has  overcrowded  its  limits  here  and  there?  The  awakened 
city  must  take  stock  of  itself  fully  and  accurately  before  it  can  know 
in  what  way  its  present  needs  and  future  necessities  can  best  be  pro- 
vided for. 

3.  A  City  Planning  Bureau. — In  the  third  place,  we  propose  that  a 
body  of  citizens  be  selected  to  interpret  the  survey  facts  and  to  pre- 
sent plans  for  the  future  of  the  city. 

Such  a  body  is  obviously  necessary  if  the  city  is  ever  to  realize  fully 
its  opportunities  for  development.  The  bureau  to  plan  for  the  future 
of  the  community  should  be  composed  of  the  finest  citizens  of  the  city, 
men  and  women  of  far-visioned  civic  minds.  Membership  in  the  city 
planning  body  is,  or  ought  to  be,  a  badge  of  real  distinction  and  honor. 

4.  Executive  Action  by  City  Offices. — We  propose,  in  the  fourth  place, 
that  the  city,  as  soon  as  the  planning  body  formulates  a  plan  of  struc- 
tural growth,  shall  take  steps  to  carry  out  the  plan,  as  far  as  it  may 
be  possible,  step  by  step. 

The  streets  of  the  city  must  be  laid  for  the  future.  They  must  be 
broad  in  the  crowded  business  districts,  well  arranged,  and  beautiful  in 
every  portion  of  the  city. 

Industries  are  one  of  the  mainsprings  of  modern  city  life.  An 
industrial  area  should  be  designated,  easy  of  access  to  power  and  to 
railroad  depot  and  station,  sufficient  in  size  to  accommodate  indus- 
trial expansion  in  the  future.  At  least  this  manufacturing  area  ought 
to  be  mapped  and  publicly  displayed  for  suggestion  and  guidance. 

The  trading  businesses  of  the  city  should  have  a  center.  One  of  the 
greatest  contributors  to  the  rambling  appearance  and  casual  dirty 
look  of  most  little  cities  is  the  indiscriminate  way  in  which  stores, 
markets,  factories,  and  homes  are  jumbled  together. 

One  of  the  main  necessities  of  the  city  is  wholesome  open-air  recrea- 
tion. If  not  already  done,  every  North  Carolina  city  should  start 
today  and  lay  out  for  itself  an  adequate  system  of  parks  and  play- 
grounds, future  as  well  as  present  needs  considered. 

5.  Proper  Attention  to  Social  Institutions  and  Agencies.— Our  fieth 
proposal  concerns   (1)  municipal  buildings  and  the  public  square    (2) 
public  school  buildings  and  city  library,  and  (3)  a  community  Center 
or  city  auditorium. 

The  city  planning  bureau  should  lay  out  plans  for  all  these  with  a 
keen  look  into  the  immediate  and  remote  future. 

A  comprehensive  and  expansible  system  of  school  buildings  should 
be  worked  toward.  There  is  at  present  not  a  city  in  the  state  that  has 
a  really  well  planned  and  adequate  school  system. 

A  community  center  fitly  expressive  of  the  personality  and  loyalty 
of  the  city  should  be  built  as  soon  as  possible,  for  the  longer  a  city 
waits  the  harder  it  is  for  a  city  to  express  itself  as  a  distinct  per- 
sonality with  a  distinctive  beauty  and  significance  of  its  own. 


148  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Then  there  is  the  library,  and  the  auditorium,  and  the  city  hall 
that  can  in  a  few  years  time  be  grouped  together  with  the  community 
building  and  the  schools  to  form  the  heart  of  the  community,  as,  for 
instance,  in  the  impressive  assembly  of  municipal  buildings  in  Spring- 
field, Mass. 

6.  Public  Health  Machinery. — In  the  sixth  place,  we  propose  that  the 
city  create  adequate  public  health  machinery,  which  means  (a)  a 
public  health  department  with  laboratory,  and  dispensary,  properly 
officered  by  a  public  health  superintendent,  sanitary  inspectors,  and 
public  health  nurses,  one  or  more  as  may  be  necessary,  (b)  free  hos- 
pital wards,  or  a  city  hospital  or  joint  interest  in  a  county  or  county- 
group  hospital,  (c)  responsibility  for  water  supply,  sanitary  milk 
supply,  market  inspectors,  street  cleaning,  sewage  and  garbage  dis- 
posal, sanitary  and  quarantine  regulations,  and  so  on  and  on. 

The  four  ideals  toward  which  every  city  should  strive  are  the 
health  of  its  citizens,  the  education  of  its  children,  wholesome  recre- 
tion  for  all  its  people,  and  the  maintenance  of  moral  conditions  every- 
where in  its  borders. 

II.    Small-Town  Reforms 

The  problem  of  the  little  town  is  distinct  from  that  of  the  city.  The 
little  town  has  a  different  psychology.  Its  relationships  are  personal. 
A  different  method  of  drawing  its  citizens  into  a  common  interest 
must  be  employed.  The  town  is  different  from  the  city  in  the  extent 
and  scope  of  its  activities.  The  greatest  difference  lies  in  the  sources 
of  its  being.  The  city  is  the  center  of  industry  and  business,  the 
small  town  and  the  village  are  country  products,  their  citizens  live 
under  country  conditions — that  is  to  say,  with  a  minimum  of  the  arti- 
fices of  civilization,  police  and  fire  protection,  paved  streets  and  side- 
walks, libraries,  health  machinery,  and  so  on.  In  North  Carolina  we 
have  of  late  years  developed  many  small  civic  communities  that  are 
mainly  industrial — little  mill  centers  set  in  country  areas.  To  them 
the  country  is  but  a  source  of  raw  materials  and  labor,  but  to  the 
town  of  the  old  order,  the  quiet,  peaceful  trading  center,  the  surround- 
ing country  regions  are  important  in  other  ways.  They  are  the  sources 
of  its  life.  Indeed  they  condition  its  prosperity,  even  its  very  exist- 
ence. 

When  the  average  small  town  is  seen  in  passing  one  cannot  honestly 
say  it  is  pleasing.  The  open  country  is  at  least  clean  and  natural; 
the  small  country  town  is  too  often  an  ugly  blot  on  the  landscape. 
If  there  is  a  railroad,  the  little  country  town  in  North  Carolina  will 
endeavor  to  place  near  the  station  all  the  disreputable  shacks  that  it 
can  erect — unpainted,  unsightly  warehouses,  malodorous  eating  places, 
grotesque  little  stores,  tumble-down  shanties  and  the  like.  On  the 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  149 

outskirts  of  the  place  the  panorama  of  badly  kept  premises,  ungainly 
outhouses,  and  weedy  lots  gives  a  sordid  effect.  Then  there  is  main 
street  with  its  rows  of  shops  on  either  side.  The  streets,  alleys  and 
back  lots  are  usually  muddy  and  littered  with  paper  and  refuse. 
There  are  attractive,  comfortable  homes,  but  they  are  few.  For  the 
most  part  the  houses  are  nondescript  in  appearance  and  doubtful  in 
comfort.  Trees  have  been  planted  haphazard  and  an  occasional 
prim  lawn  may  be  seen.  This  briefly  is  how  the  average  country 
town  impresses  the  stranger. 

When  a  day  or  so  is  taken  to  examine  the  collective  personality  of 
the  small  country  town  one  finds  the  disposition,  the  public  spirit  of 
its  citizens,  or  the  lack  of  it,  to  be  a  kind  to  harmonize  with  the 
physical  surroundings.  It  is  only  after  months  of  discussion  that  any- 
thing is  done  by  the  town  government.  When  the  need  for  a  new 
school  building  is  imperative,  one  is  built  to  satisfy  the  present  need. 
If  there  is  a  universal  demand  for  water-works  and  electric  lights  the 
town  will  put  up  a  temporary  and  unsightly  tank  and  install  a  light 
plant  that  can  last,  at  the  best,  for  only  a  few  years. 

It  is  the  atmosphere  of  the  town  that  most  depresses.  Nobody  cares 
for  anything  beyond  his  little  personal  affairs  and  his  daily  treadmill 
round  of  small  interests.  The  apathy  springs  from  poor  government 
or  poor  government  springs  from  apathy.  It  is  a  vicious  circle  of  in- 
difference and  inertia.  Nothing  can  kill  a  civic  interest  and  pride  in 
the  individual  more  swiftly  than  an  irresponsive  and  an  irresponsible 
government.  Town  interest  sometimes  is  aroused  in  a  splendid  way. 
It  fritters  away  when  a  weak  government  interposes  the  deadweight 
of  delay,  and  excuse.  Passing  the  buck  is  a  common  small-town  game. 
This,  for  instance,  is  the  trouble  with  Chapel  Hill.  With  a  body  of 
intelligent  citizens  this  place  should  lead  the  small  towns  of  the  state 
in  civic  development.  But  nobody  has  any  definite  authority  to  under- 
take anything.  As  a  consequence,  little  is  done  to  trim  and  tidy  up 
Chapel  Hill  and  to  make  it  what  it  might  easily  be — the  most  charm- 
ing little  university  town  on  the  continent.  The  contrast  between 
Chapel  Hill,  N.  C.,  and  Amherst,  Mass.,  is  distinctly  depressing. 

The  small-town  citizen  is  a  rank  individualist.  He  can  see  little 
beyond  his  own  interests  and  his  own  prosperity.  One  of  the  hard 
tasks  of  leadership  is  to  drive  into  the  thinking  of  our  small-town 
folk  the  fact  that  the  best  good  of  the  whole  is  the  highest  good  of 
the  individual.  Little  can  be  accomplished  in  our  small  towns  unless 
the  folks  learn  to  work  together.  Even  our  small-town  churches  are 
sources  of  community  division,  or  commonly  so.  In  a  word,  rank 
individualism,  social  apathy,  and  indifference  toward  all  affairs  out- 
side of  purely  personal  interests  are  the  things  that  hinder  small- 
town development  in  this  and  every  other  state  in  America. 


150  STATE  KECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

1.  The  City  Manager. — Our  first  proposal  for  the  small  town  is  that 
it  adopt   the   city   manager   form   of  government.     This   plan    insures 
the  employment  by  the  town  of  a  technically  trained  man  to  act  as  its 
business  head  and  administrator.     This  head  is,  of  course,  responsible 
to  the  council  for  all  his  actions.     The  advantage  of  having  such  a 
directing  force  is  immediate.     There  is  some  one  to  do  things  and  to 
be  responsible  for  not  doing  the  things  that  the  people  want.     There 
is  someone  to  give  definite  care  to  the  growth,  the  institutions,  and 
the  health  of  the  community. 

2.  The   Town   Survey. — In   the   second   place*   we   propose   that   the 
town,  through  its  service  bodies,  conduct  a  complete  and  careful  in- 
vestigation of  its  present  status  and  its  future  possibilities.    This  can 
be  carried  out  after  the  method  of  the  city  survey,   only  the   little 
town   must   make   a   much   more   careful  and   intimate   study   of  the 
area  of  which  ilt  is  the  trade  center,  for  the  fortunes  of  the  country 
town  and  its  trade  center  are  one  and  the  same.     This  auto-survey 
should   cover   the  economic,  the   social,   and   the   institutional   life   of 
both  the  town  and  its  countryside.     Only  through  such  a  survey  can 
the  little  town  act  wisely  in  providing,  even  self-defensively,  for  its 
future.     All  of  us  are  acquainted  with  the  small  town  that  assures 
strangers  that  it  will  some  day  be  the  metropolis  of  the  state,  although 
it  does  not  quite  know  how  it  is  to  achieve  this  eminence.     There  are 
hundreds  of  little  country  communities  that  can  never  be  anything  but 
little  and  country,  but  nevertheless  they  can  be  altogether  lovely  resi- 
dence centers.     Frank  A.  Waugh  says  that  they  are  "like  old  maids, 
forsaken  by  opportunity  but  still   simpering  and  smiling  as   though 
commanding  a  second  future.     Every  crossroad  is  going  to  become  a 
county  seat,  every  county  seat  aspires  to  be  the  state  capital.     Mean- 
while no  town  has  the  inspiration  and  the  dignity  to  be  itself.     In 
ninety-nine  villages  and  towns  of  every  one  hundred  throughout  the 
United   States,   especially  in  the  South  and  West,  the  first  work   of 
community  improvement  lies  in  killing  the  poison  of  a  false  ambition 
and  establishing  instead  a  patriotic  self-respect.     Through   the  auto- 
survey  they  should  realize  that  they  may  work  toward  what  they  may 
reasonably  expect  from  the  promise  of  the  community  they  live  in 
and  the  country  they  serve.    It  is  the  function  of  the  survey  to  place 
them  on  bedrock  for  future  operations." 

3.  A  Town  Planning  Bureau. — When  the  town  has  a  capable,  com- 
petent, responsible  head  and  knows  its  possibilities,   we  propose,  in 
the  third  place,  that  it  establish  a  town  bureau  to  plan  for  the  future 
and  that  as  the  future  is  planned  the  little  town  set  about  making 
itself  presentable,  comfortable  and  happy,  with  civic  pep  and  pride. 

Like  the  city,  the  town  should  plan  its  structure — where  new  streets 
should  be  run,  where  a  park  should  be  laid  off,  where  the  town  center 
should  be  built,  and  how  the  school  system  is  to  develop,  and  so  on  and 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  !N".  C.  151 

on.  It  is  only  by  years  of  persistent  effort  that  the  small  town  can 
ever  make  itself  a  unique  community  where  there  is  a  place  for  every- 
thing with  everything  in  its  place. 

4.  Unity  with  the  Countryside. — We  make  as  a  fourth  proposal 
that  the  town  realize  its  unity  with  the  countryside  of  which  it  is  the 
center,  and  that  it  set  about  growing  a  mutual  spirit  of  kinship  and 
comfortable  comradeship. 

The  little  town,  especially  in  a  rural  state,  depends  upon  the  coun- 
try for  its  life.  The  farmers  buy  and  sell  in  the  town,  and  so  give 
occupation  to  the  middleman  and  the  artisan.  The  town  renders  a 
valuable  service  to  the  country  areas  round  about,  but  is  paid  hand- 
somely for  it.  The  economic  life  of  the  countryside  and  the  town  are 
so  closely  interwoven  that  neither  could  exist  in  comfort  without  the 
other. 

In  an  institutional  way  the  tie  is  almost  as  close.  The  town  is  not 
only  the  trade  center,  it  is  the  logical  school  and  church  center  as 
well.  It  is  only  by  town  and  country  cooperation  that  the  broadest 
benefits  will  be  received  by  both.  Country  institutions  will  best  flour- 
ish if  they  focus  in  the  physical  and  economic  center  of  the  country 
territory — namely,  in  the  country  town  it  supports  and  by  which  it 
is  served. 

The  social  needs  of  town  and  country  are  identical — that  is  the 
fundamental  fact,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  neither  town  nor  country  people 
have  yet  considered  in  any  very  intelligent  way  anywhere  in  America. 
Town  and  country  interdependences  are  so  evident  that  it  would 
seem  easy  to  effect  a  close  and  hearty  cooperation.  But  we  reckon 
without  our  townsman.  As  we  have  said,  he  is  a  rank  individualist 
as  a  rule.  Not  only  this,  he  is  a  rank  individualist  with  many 
peculiar,  robust  notions  of  his  own.  In  our  state  it  is  commonly 
true  that  the  small  townsman  has  a  real  contempt  for  the  farmer. 
He  disguises  his  real  feelings  and  puts  on  an  air  of  smug  welcome, 
but  the  contempt  is  there.  Mr.  Harlan  Paul  Douglass  expresses  it  as 
follows: 

"The  citizen  of  Littleton  is  sure  that  he  is  different  from  and  superior 
to  the  countryman:  he  feels  that  the  countryman  is  like,  though  in- 
ferior, to  the  city  man;  that  he  himself  belongs  to  the  urban  rather 
than  to  the  rural  order  of  life.  Challenged  to  defend  his  position  the 
townsman  would  think  first  of  the  palpable  advantages  of  his  lot. 
He  walks  on  a  sidewalk;  he  works  less  hard  than  the  farmer,  his 
day  begins  two  hours  later  and  he  sits  up  two  hours  longer;  he  wears 
good  clothes  more  of  the  time;  he  is  nearer  good  schools  and  churches." 

At  the  bottom  he  bases  his  superiority  on  his  sophistication,  and 
his  specialization  of  job  or  work.  He  feels  that  the  town  is  the  center 
of  things.  He  looks  on  the  farmer  as  the  goose  that  lays  the  golden 
egg— a  goose  that  deserves  to  be  plucked. 


152  STATE  KECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

And  yet  the  small  town  is  more  of  the  country  than  it  is  of  the  city. 
If  it  is  ever  to  amount  to  much  in  North  Carolina,  it  must  realize 
this  close  kinship  to  the  country  and  must  come  to  bend  its  every 
effort  to  make  the  two  develop  together,  for  no  town  can  be  stronger 
than  its  back  country.  The  attitude  of  the  townsman  must  change. 
Farmers  are  not  deceived  by  the  glad  hand  that  greets  them  on  their 
arrival  at  the  store  or  the  warehouse.  They  feel  and  resent  the  town- 
man  air  of  superiority  that,  no  matter  how  deeply  it  is  hidden,  crops 
out  by  chance,  say,  in  the  mouths  of  street  urchins  or  town  bullies. 
A  real  interest  and  a  real  appreciation  of  the  farmer  must  become  a 
vital  town  creed.  When  the  day  comes  that  the  farmer  can  walk  down 
the  street  of  Littleton  and  feel  that  he  has  a  proprietary  interest 
in  the  welfare  of  the  place,  then  will  come  Littleton's  largest  chance 
to  develop,  for  it  is  only  in  the  service  of  its  community  that  it  can 
realize  its  larger  self. 

5.  Coordinating  Plans. — And  so  we  come  to  our  fifth  proposal, 
namely,  that  the  country  town  definitely  undertake  to  coordinate  the 
economic,  social,  and  institutional  life  of  its  own  small  group  and 
that  of  the  people  in  the  surrounding  countryside. 

To  interrelate  itself  economically  with  its  trade  area  the  town's 
businessmen  need  to  set  themselves  to  service  in  the  broadest  possible 
ways. 

They  must  provide  adequate  marketing,  buying,  and  shipping  facili- 
ties. Provision  should  be  made  for  the  comfort  of  the  farmer  and 
the  care  of  his  stock  while  he  is  in  town.  Restrooms  must  be  pro- 
vided for  the  farm  women  in  the  county-seat  town;  these  logically 
ought  to  be  in  the  courthouse.  They  must  be  built  into  new  court- 
houses as  essential  details  of  the  structure.  The  town  should  bend 
its  every  effort  to  making  itself  the  center  of  all  kinds  of  cooperative 
farm  enterprises — for  buying,  selling,  credit  unions  and  the  like. 
The  town,  if  it  is  really  sincere  in  its  work  of  service,  must  definitely 
and  actively  promote  cotton  and  tobacco  culture  on  a  self-supporting 
bread-and-meat  basis.  At  present  the  towns  actively  discourage  the 
development  of  a  safely-balanced  agriculture  in  North  Carolina. 

Common  Institutional  Life 

If  the  little  country  town  seeks  to  correlate  its  institutional  life 
with  that  of  the  countryside  it  can  start  at  once  the  work — first  of  all, 
to  improve  the  roads.  As  means  of  transportation  grow  better  the 
town  and  the  country  may  easily  become  more  nearly  one. 

1.  The  town  is  the  natural  high-school  center  for  its  trade  area. 
Only  in  central  schools  can  the  best  results  in  education  be  obtained. 
It  is  to  the  best  advantage  of  farmer  and  merchant  that  all  the  re- 
sources of  the  community  be  pooled  and  the  money  be  spent  for  a 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  153 

really  adequate  school,  rather  than  dribbled  away  in  half-hearted 
institutions,  poor  in  teachers,  buildings  and  equipments.  The  trade 
center  is  likewise  the  best  place  to  establish  a  vocational  school  for 
all  the  children  of  the  community  needing  special  training.  The  town 
must  solve  the  problem  of  transporting  students,  but  with  the  motor 
vehicles  of  today  such  a  problem  is  a  minor  one.  Chapel  Hill  is  at 
present  doing  such  work  successfully. 

2.  The  religious  life  of  a  countryside  would  best  focus  and  function 
in  the  small  town.     Small  congregations  scattered  all  over  the  country 
are  greatly  handicapped.     If  they  could  be  unified,  each  denomination 
into   one   strong  church,   their  influence   would   be   immeasurably   in- 
creased. 

3.  The  village  can,  if  it  will,  make  itself  the  leader  of  the  culture 
of  its  area.     It  should  make  provision  for  a  good  library.     A  public 
auditorium  is  a  community  necessity. 

As  a  further  work  of  tying  town  and  country  together,  the  town 
must  undertake  to  satisfy  the  social  needs  of  the  country.  It  must 
surrender  at  once  all  ideas  of  its  own  social  superiority.  It  can 
surely  build  up  a  community  spirit  by  friendly  intercourse,  and  just 
as  surely  it  can  provoke  estrangement  and  resentment  by  snobbish- 
ness. 

And  we  may  add  that  the  motion  picture  has  not  yet  been  fully 
appreciated  as  a  community  solidifier;  that  the  little  town  can  serve 
by  making  itself  the  scene  of  holiday  celebrations,  community  fairs, 
political  speeches,  and  the  like;  that  it  can  serve  by  offering  the 
means  of  expressing  the  community  desire  for  dramatic  plays  and 
pageants;  and  that  it  can  serve  by  being  the  musical  center  of  the 
area  to  which  it  ministers. 


Social  Agencies 

The  future  of  the  little  country  towns  depends  most  largely  upon 
itself.  Its  largest  development  is  conditioned  upon  its  own  govern- 
ment and  its  own  service  bodies. 

If  the  surrounding  countryside  is  awake  it  can  spread  the  spirit  of 
cooperation,  say,  in  building  more  and  better  roads  with  which  to  tie 
civic  communities  and  country  districts  more  and  more  closely  to- 
gether. 

The  state,  through  its  legislature  and  its  Community  Service  Bu- 
reau, could  help  the  414  small  country  towns  of  North  Carolina  to 
function  properly,  first  as  choice  residence  centers  foundationed  on 
trade  and  banking,  and  second  as  vitalizing  centers  of  country  civili- 
zation. At  present  our  Community  Service  Bureau  is  busy  with 
community  recreation;  it  ought  to  move  on  into  community  organi- 
zation and  guidance. 


154  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Finally,  there  is  the  State  University.  In  its  new  extension  work  it 
offers,  free  of  charge,  (1)  engineering  advice  in  country-home  com- 
forts and  conveniences,  (2)  guidance  in  local  study  clubs,  lecture 
courses,  package  library  service,  correspondence  courses,  community 
drama  and  pageants,  community  song  service,  home  and  school  beauti- 
fication,  (3)  county  and  community  surveys,  community  organization 
courses  and  local  guidance,  courses  in  city  and  small-town  planning, 
public  welfare  courses,  field  advice  in  social  work,  and  so  on  and  on. 

It  has  recently  established  a  course  of  training  for  town  and  city 
officials  in  municipal  affairs. 

It  offers  to  every  community  in  the  state  the  expert  advice  of  trained 
men  on  any  subject  in  which  the  community  may  be  interested.  On 
questions  of  city  and  town  planning,  construction  of  water  and  light 
systems,  cooperative  organization,  engineers  are  immediately  sent  to 
the  community  applying  for  advice.  There  they  give  expert  atten- 
tion to  the  situation  and  make  up  estimates  of  the  proper  method 
and  cost  of  procedure. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  University  of  North  Carolina  is 
leading  the  universities  of  the  South  in  field  services  of  every  sort; 
and,  further,  that  in  some  ways  of  extension  service  it  is  leading  the 
state  institutions  of  the  entire  country. 

The  ideal  informing  this  article  does  not  concern  perfection  in 
town  and  city  life,  but  it  does  concern  what  our  cities  and  towns 
might  reasonably  do  toward  making  themselves  choice  residence 
places  in  what  might  easily  be  the  choicest  in  the  United  States. — 
W.  E.  Price,  Chairman  Sub-Committee  on  Social  and  Civic  Organization. 

May  17th,  1920. 


ORGANIZED  BUSINESS  AND  LIFE 
Outline 

Corporate  Organization.  Problems  confronting  capital:  (1)  labor 
unrest — causes,  extent,  and  intensity,  (2)  labor  unions,  labor  demands, 
strike  settlements  in  Charlotte,  High  Point,  Albemarle,  and  elsewhere, 
(3)  the  National  Industrial  Conferences  in  Washington  and  Atlantic 
City,  (4)  the  way  out,  state  and  national,  (5)  Government  ownership 
of  public  utilities,  (6)  private  ownership,  development,  and  operation 
of  small  water  powers  for  community  and  domestic  uses. 

Bibliography 

A  brief  bibliography  of  selected  books,  bulletins,  and  clippings  on 
Organized  Business  and  Life,  for  the  Carolina  Club  committee  ap- 
pointed to  make  tentative  reports  to  the  Club  on  March  29,  April  19, 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  !N".  C.  155 

May  3,  and  a  final  program  report  on  May  31.  This  material  is  all 
ready  at  hand  in  the  seminar  room  of  the  Department  of  Rural  Social 
Science  at  the  University  of  North  Carolina. 

Corporate  Organization 

1.  Reconstructing  America:    Our  Next  Big  Job— Edited  by  Edwin 
Wildman.     Page  Company,  Boston.     Chapters  11  and  13.      420  pp. 

The  Industrial  Revolution  of  The  United  States,  by  Carroll  D. 
Wright.  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York.  362  pp. 

Conditions  of  Labor  in  American  Industry — Lauck  and  Sydenstricker. 
Funk  and  Wagnalls  Company,  New  York.  403  pp. 

Industry  and  Humanity — W.  L.  McKenzie  King.  Houghton  Mifflin 
Company,  Boston.  567  pp.  Chapters  5,  6,  7. 

Capitalism  and  Socialism — Seligman  and  Nearing.  The  Fine  Arts 
Guild,  27  West  8th  Street,  New  York.  46  pp. 

Capital  and  Labor— Otto  H.  Kahn.     20  pp. 

Industrial  Readjustment,  by  Herbert  Hoover.  Saturday  Evening 
Post,  December  27,  1919. 

The  New  State — M.  P.  Follett  Longmans,  Green  and  Company,  New 
York.  pp.  114-121. 

Report  of  Committee  on  Vocational  Education — Henry  C.  Metcalf  to 
the  Fourth  Annual  Convention  of  Corporation  Schools. 

2.  Industrial  Wealth  in  North  Carolina— W.  E.  Price.    North  Caro- 
lina Club  Year-Book,  1916-17. 

Our  Industrial  Capital  in  North  Carolina — R.  E.  Price.    Ibid. 
Strikes  in  North  Carolina — Newspaper  clippings.    University  Rural 
Social  Science  Files,  No.  331.89. 

3.  The  President's  Industrial  Conference,  October,  1919— The  Sur- 
vey, Vol.  XLIII,  No.  2,  112  East  Nineteenth  Street,  New  York. 

The  President  Advises  Legislation  for  Normal  Peace  Basis — Press 
item.  University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  331.1. 

The  National  Labor  Conference — Monthly  Labor  Review,  November, 
1919,  pp.  40-9. 

Christianity  and  Industry,  by  Wm.  Adams  Brown.  The  Woman's 
Press,  New  York.  58  pp. 

Labor's  Challenge  to  the  Social  Order-^John  Graham  Brooks.  Mac- 
millan  Co.,  New  York.  441  pp. 

The  Steel  Strike— The  Survey,  November  8,  1919. 

The  Steel  Strike,  business  conditions — Monthly  Labor  Review,  No- 
vember, 1919,  pp.  24-30. 

The  National  Industrial  Conference,  October,  1919;  conflicting  issues, 
leaders,  programs,  conclusions,  with  a  brief  of  the  congressional  in- 
vestigation of  the  steel  strike.— Newspaper  clippings.  University  Rural 
Social  Science  Files,  No.  331.89. 


156  STATE  KECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Labor  Creed  of  the  National  Manufacturers'  Association — Federal 
Monthly  Labor  Review,  February,  1920,  pp.  35-6. 

The  A.  F.  L.  Creed— Ibid.,  p.  168. 

As  Others  See  Us — Lathrop  Stoddard.  World's  Work,  December  19, 
1919. 

The  Strike  of  the  Bituminous  Coal  Miners,  November,  1919 — News- 
paper clippings.  Ibid. 

Profits  of  the  Bituminous  Coal  Operators — Literary  Digest,  Decem- 
ber 6,  1919. 

Wages  and  Hours  of  Labor  in  Bituminous  Coal  Regions — Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Reconstruction  Program  of  the  British  Labor  Party — W.  R.  Browne, 
Wyoming,  New  York.  40  pp.  Price,  20  cents. 

Lloyd  George  on  the  British  Rail  Strike — Newspaper  clipping.  Uni- 
versity Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  331.89. 

The  International  Trade  Federation — Newspaper  clipping.     Ibid. 

Platform  of  the  National  Conference  of  Liberals — University  Rural 
Social  Science  Files,  No.  329.8. 

Pan-American  Federation  of  Labor,  New  York  City,  July  7-10,  1919. 
— Pan-American  Federation  of  Labor,  407  A.  F.  of  L.  Building,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.  67  pp. 

The  Steel  Strike — John  A.  Fitch.     The  Survey,  September  27,  1919. 

4.  Labor  in  a  Democratic  Society — Charles  W.  Eliot.  The  Survey, 
April  12,  1919. 

The  New  Industrial  Unrest — Ray  Stannard  Baker.  Doubleday,  Page 
and  Co.,  New  York.  28  pp. 

Labor  in  the  Peace  Treaty,  Part  XIII — Bulletin  of  the  World  Peace 
Foundation,  40  Vernon  Street,  Boston. 

Man  to  Man — John  Leitch.  B.  C.  Forbes  Company,  New  York. 
249  pp. 

The  Harvester  Works  Council — Meyer  Bloomfleld.  The  Survey, 
April  12,  1919. 

Industrial  Agreement  of  the  Joint  Boards  in  the  Garment  Trades — 
The  Survey,  September  13,  1919. 

Representation  in  Industry — John  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr.     31  pp. 

The  Fetish  of  Industrial  Democracy — Samuel  Crowther,  in  the 
World's  Work,  November,  1919. 

The  Industrial  Creed  of  John  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr.;  national  indus- 
trial conference,  October,  1919 — University  Rural  Social  Science  Files, 
No.  331.7. 

Management-Sharing  in  300  Corporations — Literary  Digest,  Septem- 
ber 4,  1920. 

Otto  H.  Kahn's  Industrial  Creed — Manufacturers'  Record,  July  3, 
1919. 

What  Labor  Wants — Literary  Digest,  December  27,  1919. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  157 

H.  B.  Endicott's  Industrial  Creed,  in  New  York  Times,  October  26, 
1919. 

Collective  Bargaining — The  Country  Gentleman,  December  13,   1919. 

A  Basic  Ten-Hour  Day— Ibid. 

When  They  Get  Together— Samuel  Crowther.  World's  Work,  De- 
cember, 1919. 

Anticipation  of  the  Industrial  Commonwealth — The  Public,  Novem- 
ber 29,  1919. 

Religion  and  Industry — Dr.  James  I.  Vance,  Nashville,  Tenn. 

War-Time  Strikes— E.  C.  Branson.  University  News  Letter,  Septem- 
ber 17,  1919. 

Industry  and  Humanity — W.  L.  McKenzie  King.  Houghton  Mifflin 
Company.  Chapter  10. 

Industrial  Arbitration  in  New  Zealand,  in  Lusk's  Social  Welfare  in 
New  Zealand.  Macmillan  Company,  New  York.  pp.  76,  187-94. 

Profit  Sharing — Mortimer  L.  Schiff,  52  William  Street,  New  York. 

5.  Public  Ownership  of  Railroads— Albert  M.  Todd  before  Committee 
on  Interstate  Commerce,  February  21,  1919. 

The  Church  and  Socialism — John  A.  Ryan.  The  University  Press, 
Washington,  D.  C.  251  pp. 

Government  Ownership  of  Public  Utilities — Leon  Cammen.  Mc- 
Deavitt-Wilson's,  30  Church  Street,  New  York.  142  pp. 

Government  Ownership  of  Railways — Samuel  C.  Dunn.  Appleton 
and  Company.  400  pp. 

Government  Ownership  and  Operation  of  Railways — Dr.  John  R. 
Commons,  University  of  Wisconsin,  Madison. 

Railroad  Legislation  to  Date,  December  10,  1919 — R.  S.  Lovett,  120 
Broadway,  N.  Y. 

The  Plumb  Plan  of  Railway  Ownership — University  Rural  Social 
Science  Files,  No.  385. 

The  Plumb  Plan — The  New  Republic,  August  20,  1919. 

The  People's  Plan  for  Railroad  Legislation — Citizen's  National  Rail- 
road League,  Boston. 

6.  Water  Power  Monopoly  In  North  Carolina — W.  E.  Price.    North 
Carolina  Club  Year-Book,  1916-17.    p.  17. 

Decision  of  Justice  Clark  in  Southern  Power  Company  Case;  dis- 
senting opinion  of  Justice  Allen — University  Rural  Social  Science 
Files,  No.  341. 

Concentration  and  Control — Charles  R.  Van  Hise.  Macmillan  Com- 
pany, New  York.  288  pp. 

Recent  Newspaper  Clippings — University  Rural  Social  Science  Files, 
Nos.  622;  331.89;  331.21;  and  385.2. 


158  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

Cooperative  Organization 

Cooperative  Organization — a  new  form  of  business  organization 
sanctioned  by  law:  (1)  distinctive  characteristics;  origin,  forms,  ex- 
tent at  present;  conditions  opposed  to  rapid  development  in  America; 
significance  and  outlook;  (2)  cooperative  credit  unions  in  North  Caro- 
lina, which  leads  the  Union,  and  why;  cooperative  production  and 
distribution  under  state  law  and  supervision,  as,  for  instance,  the 
state  cotton  warehouse  system;  (3)  declaration  of  principles,  policies, 
and  plans. 

Bibliography 

1.  Distinctive  characteristics;  origin,  forms,  extent  at  present,  de- 
velopment in  America,  significance  and  outlook. 

Economics — Watson  and  Nearing.  Macmillan  Company,  New  York. 
493  pp.  Chapters  35  and  56. 

Cooperation  at  Home  and  Abroad — C.  R.  Fay.  Macmillan  Company, 
New  York.  403  pp. 

Cooperation  in  Danish  Agriculture— Harald  Paber.  Longmans  & 
Company,  New  York.  176  pp. 

Denmark's  Remedies:  Education  and  Cooperation — E.  C.  Branson. 
University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  630.43.  10  pp. 

A  Credit  Union  Primer — Ham  and  Robinson.  Russell  Sage  Founda- 
tion, 130  East  Twenty-second  Street,  New  York.  80  pp. 

Cooperative  Purchasing  and  Marketing  Organizations  Among  Farm- 
ers in  the  United  States — Jesness  and  Kerr.  Bulletin  547,  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture.  82  pp. 

Cooperation  in  Wisconsin — Hibbard  and  Hobson.  University  of 
Wisconsin  Bulletin,  Madison,  Wis.  44  pp. 

Cooperation  in  Agriculture — C.  Harold  Powell.  Macmillan  Com- 
pany, New  York.  324  pp. 

Organization  of  Rural  Interests — T.  N.  Carver.  Reprint  from  the 
1913  Year-Book  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture. 

Cooperation  in  the  United  States — Cheves  West  Perky.  Cooperative 
League  of  America,  70  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York. 

Consumers'  Cooperation — University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No. 
630.4. 

2.  Cooperation  in  North  Carolina. 

The  McRae  Bill  on  Cooperative  Credit  Unions  and  Cooperative  As- 
sociations— Chapter  115,  North  Carolina  Public  Laws,  1915. 

Cooperative  Enterprise  in  North  Carolina — L.  P.  Gwaltney,  Jr. 
North  Carolina  Club  Year-Book,  1915-16. 

North  Carolina  Credit  Unions — John  Sprunt  Hill.  University  Rural 
Social  Science  Files,  No.  630.45. 

Newspaper   clippings — Ibid. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  159 

Interest  Rates  in  North  Carolina — E.  C.  Branson.  University  News 
Letter,  Vol.  II,  Nos.  12  and  13,  and  Vol.  Ill,  No.  43. 

Federal  Farm  Land  Banks — Newspaper  clippings.  University  Rural 
Social  Science  Files,  No.  630.45. 

Cooperative  Enterprise  in  Catawba  County — The  University  of  North 
Carolina  Record,  July,  1914.  15  pp. 

The  North  Carolina  Cotton  Warehouse  System — Newspaper  clippings. 
University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  630.34. 

Social  and  Civic  Organization 

1.  Social    organization — collective    volunteer    effort    for    community 
self-expression,   self-direction,   self-protection,   culture,   recreation,   and 
the  like — clubs  of  all  sorts,  community  houses,  law  and  order  leagues, 
etc.;  or  to  confer  common  benefits,  as  associated  charities,  public  wel- 
fare allies,  school  betterment  associations,  etc.:    (a)   relatively  numer- 
ous and  active  in  our  towns  and  cities;    almost  non-existent  in  our 
rural  regions  among  some  eighteen  hundred  thousand  people,  and  why; 
(b)   the  ills  of  social  insulation  and  the  cure;    (c)   the  social  signifi- 
cance of  community  fairs,  county  school  commencements  and  the  like; 

(d)  the  social  unit  plan  of  democratic  development,  as  in  Cincinnati; 

(e)  other  remedial  agencies  and  measures. 

2.  Civic  organization:     (a)  the  city,  a  stupendous  modern  phenome- 
non;  creative  causes  and  consequent  ills;    (b)   the  rapid  urbanization 
of  North  Carolina,  the  facts,  the   causes,  the  relation  to   developing 
industrial  life,  social  stability,  law  and  order;    (c)    commission  gov- 
ernment, the  city-manager  plan,  the  short  ballot,  etc.;    (d)   the  prob- 
lems of  family  integrity,  community  health  and  wholesome  recreation, 
and  so  on. 

Bibliography 

1.  Social  Organization — meaning  collective  volunteer  effort  for  com- 
munity self-expression,  self-direction,  self-protection,  culture,  recrea- 
tion, and  the  like;  or  to  secure  common  advantages  and  confer  com- 
mon benefits. 

Rural  Life — Charles  J.  Galpin.  The  Century  Company,  New  York. 
Chapters  8-10.  386  pp. 

Introduction  to  Rural  Sociology — Vogt.  Appleton  and  Company,  New 
York.  Chapters  14-17.  443  pp. 

The  North  Carolina  Scheme  of  Rural  Development— E.  C.  Branson. 
National  Social  Work  Conference,  315  Plymouth  Court,  Chicago. 

Organization  of  a  Rural  Community — T.  N.  Carver.  Reprint  from 
the  1914  Yearbook  of  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture.  58  pp. 

Mobilizing  the  Rural  Community— E.  L.  Morgan.  Extension  Bulletin 
No.  23,  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College,  Amherst.  54  pp. 


160  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

A  Community  Center— 'Henry  E.  Jackson.  Macmillan  Company,  New 
York.  159  pp. 

Community  Center  Activities— C.  A.  Perry. 

Community  Welfare  in  Kansas — Walter  Burr.  Extension  Bulletin 
No.  4,  Kansas  State  Agricultural  College,  Manhattan.  34  pp. 

Community  Fairs  and  Their  Educational  Value— S.  G.  Rubinow.  Ex- 
tension Circular  No.  69,  Agricultural  Extension  Service,  Raleigh. 

14  pp. 

Discussion  Subjects  in  Rural  Community  Meetings — Walter  Burr, 
State  Agricultural  College,  Manhattan,  Kansas. 

The  Social  Unit  Organization  of  Cincinnati — William  J.  Norton. 
Helen  S.  Trounstine  Foundation,  731  West  Sixth  Street,  Cincinnati. 
4  pp. 

The  Cincinnati  Social  Unit — Edward  T.  Devine.  The  Survey,  Novem- 
ber 15,  1919. 

Social  Work  by  Blocks— Literary  Digest,  December  6,  1919. 

Community  Councils — Dr.  Louis  Levine.  Press  clipping.  University 
Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  367. 

Civic  Organization 

National  Municipal  Review,  1919  files— University  Rural  Social  Sci- 
ence Library. 

The  City  the  Hope  of  Democracy— Howe.  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York. 
319  pp. 

The  Challenge  of  the  City — Josiah  Strong.  Missionary  Education 
Movement  of  the  United  States  and  Canada,  New  York.  329  pp. 

The  Challenge  of  the  Country — G.  Walter  Fiske.  Association  Press, 
124  East  Twenty-eighth  Street,  New  York.  282  pp. 

The  Rapid  Urbanization  of  North  Carolina — E.  C.  Branson.  Uni- 
versity Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  360.14. 

Commission  Form  of  City  Government:  The  Wisconsin  Law — James 
A.  F'rear,  Secretary  of  State,  Madison,  Wis.  16  pp. 

What  is  the  City-Manager  Plan? — Herman  G.  James.  Municipal 
Research  Series,  No.  6,  University  of  Texas.  26  pp. 

The  City  Manager  Movement  in  N.  C.,  by  Harrison  Gray  Otis — 
National  Municipal  Review,  June,  1920. 

The  Story  of  the  City  Manager — National  Municipal  League,  261 
Broadway,  New  York.  31  pp. 

Commission-Manager  Cities — The  Short  Ballot  Bulletin,  April,  1919. 

The  Little  Boss  and  the  Big  Manager — Metropolitan  Magazine,  No- 
vember, 1916. 

The  Short  Ballot— National  Short  Ballot  Organization,  383  Fourth 
Avenue,  New  York.  31  pp. 

The  First  Short  Ballot  County — National  Short  Ballot  Organization. 

15  pp. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  "N.  C.  161 

Town  and  City  Utilities — Thorndike  Saville.  University  Rural  So- 
cial Science  Files,  No.  352.4. 

The  Family — Thwing.  Lothrop,  Lee  and  Shepard  Company,  Boston. 
258  pp. 

Reasons  for  Municipal  Ownership — University  Rural  Social  Science 
Files,  No.  352.2. 

Play  and  Recreation — Curtis.  Ginn  and  Company,  New  York.     265  pp. 

Play  and  Playgrounds — Bulletin  Federal  Bureau  of  Education, 
Library  Leaflet  No.  3,  April,  1919. 

Organized  Business  and  Life  Committee 

Corporate  Organization:  J.  V.  Baggett,  Chairman,  Sampson  County, 
Salemburg. 

Cooperative  Organization:     C.  F.   Taylor,  Wayne  County,   Pikeville. 
Civic  Organization:    W.  E.  Price,  Rockingham  County,  Madison. 


11 


162  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

CHAPTER  X 
CIVIC  REFORMS  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 


AN  EXECUTIVE  BUDGET,  THE  STATE  PURCHASING  AGENCY, 
A  STATE  AUDITING  BUREAU. 

.     M.  M.  JEBNIGAN,  SALEMBURG,  N.  C. 

Tonight  we  are  dealing  with  civic  reforms,  state  and  local,  and  it 
seems  to  me  that  no  meeting  of  the  North  Carolina  Club  has  been 
concerned  with  a  more  important  subject  than  the  one  we  have  before 
us  tonight. 

Many  reforms  are  needed  in  North  Carolina.  In  various  respects 
our  state  and  local  laws  are  inadequate  for  our  present  needs.  During 
the  period  immediately  following  1865,  North  Carolina  and  other 
Southern  states  found  themselves  confronted  with  a  gigantic  recon- 
struction program.  North  Carolina  is  at  last  awakening  to  the  fact 
that  there  are  many  changes  needed  in  the  fundamental  laws  of  the 
state  devised  during  that  period.  There  are  many  suggestions  that 
might  be  made  as  to  the  proper  way  to  begin  the  reforms  which  we 
are  to  deal  with  tonight. 

A  Constitutional  Convention 

As  a  foundation  for  these  reforms,  not  as  a  necessary  condition 
precedent  but  as  a  matter  of  progress,  we  recommend  a  constitutional 
convention  to  draw  up  an  organic  law  that  is  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  a  progressive  people. 

Our  Constitution  is  faulty  in  many  details.  The  Constitution  of 
1868  was  misbegotten,  and  it  is  alien  to  North  Carolina.  It  was 
foreign  by  birth;  it  was  modeled  after  the  constitutions  of  New  York 
and  Ohio;  and  it  was  christened  by  the  notorious  body  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty  members  that  framed  it.  Eighteen  of  them  were  carpet- 
baggers, fifteen  were  negroes,  seventy-three  were  native  republicans, 
who,  with  a  few  exceptions,  had  never  had  any  political  experience. 
They  were  largely  controlled  by  carpet-baggers.  There  were  thirteen 
able  men  in  the  convention  of  1868,  to  whom  credit  is  due  for  the 
fact  that  the  constitution  of  that  date  is  not  worse  than  it  is.  It  has 
been  amended,  from  1875  and  on,  but  it  is  inadequate  to  our  needs, 
and  it  has  always  been  so. 

Its  models  have  been  disregarded  to  be  replaced  by  a  more  progres- 
sive instrument  in  both  New  York  and  Ohio.  Not  so  in  North  Carolina, 
and  the  time  has  come  for  us  to  rewrite  our  Constitution,  not  just 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  163 

for  the  sake  of  change,  but  for  the  sake  of  progress;  not  through  idle 
discontent,  but  for  the  cause  of  enlightened  government;  not  for  any 
special  interest,  but  for  the  inspiring  cause  of  a  people  striving  to 
move  forward  in  the  performance  of  great  things. 

Other  Program  Proposals 

1.  We  propose  an  amendment  to  Chapter  38  of  the  Public  Laws  of 
1919,  providing  for  a  Budget  Commission. 

2.  We  discuss,  but  do  not  recommend,  a  state  purchasing  agency  or 
commission,  until  it  has  been  tried  more  thoroughly  in  Michigan  and 
other  states  where  the  experiment  is  being  made. 

3.  We  propose  a  system  of  uniform  departmental  and  institutional 
accounting. 

Brief  Explanations 

Taking  up  each  proposal  separately,  we  consider  first  the  budget 
system,  which  is  of  recent  growth  in  the  United  States,  but  which 
has  been  used  in  England  for  perhaps  a  couple  of  centuries.  However, 
it  never  attracted  any  great  attention  in  Great  Britain  until  1909, 
when  Lloyd  George  presented  his  budget  to  Parliament.  It  was  re- 
jected, and  Mr.  George  appealed  to  the  people  themselves,  who  ac- 
cepted it.  The  English  budget  regularly  falls  into  three  parts:  (1) 
A  review  of  revenues  and  expenditures  during  the  year  just  closed, 
(2)  a  provisional  balance  sheet  for  the  year  to  come,  and  (3)  a  series 
of  proposals  for  the  remission,  modification,  or  fresh  imposition  of 
taxes.  We  can  very  readily  see  that  this  furnishes  very  valuable 
information  for  the  House  of  Commons,  which  must  vote  the  budget. 

Several  American  states,  following  this  or  similar  budget  plans,  now 
have  budget  bureaus  or  commissions.  In  some  of  these  states  the 
budget  commissions  are  working  competently,  successfully  and  satis- 
factorily. Among  these  states  are  South  Carolina,  Alabama,  Virginia, 
Illinois,  and  Michigan.  In  the  states  named  the  budget  system  is 
proving  far  superior  to  the  old'  haphazard  plan  of  voting  appropriations 
in  the  confusions  and  haste  of  brief  legislative  sessions.  When 
placed  side  by  side,  the  reports  of  the  budget  commissions  of  Virginia 
and  North  Carolina  are  thougM-provoking.  We  ought  to  do  better 
in  this  state. 

There  is  now  a  cry  for  a  national  budget.  The  American  taxpayer, 
for  the  first  time  in  our  history,  is  actually  conscious  of  the  cost  of 
federal  government.  Federal  taxes  have,  all  told,  risen  from  one  to 
five  billion  dollars  a  year— due  primarily  to  the  World  War.  The  way 
is  wide  open  for  immense  waste  due  to  the  fact  that  no  one  public 
officer  is  directly  responsible  for  the  adjustment  of  total  expenditures 
to  total  receipts.  There  is  probably  no  other  civilized  government — 
certainly  no  government  which  is  truly  representative — where  there 


164          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

has  been  such  complete  lack  of  budget  construction  and  supervision 
as  in  the  United  States.  But  these  conditions  will  last  as  long  as 
the  debit  side  of  the  national  account  is  managed  by  one  set  of  men 
and  the  credit  side  by  another  set,  both  sets  working  separately  and 
in  secret,  without  public  responsibility  and  without  intervention  on 
part  of  the  executive  officer  who  is  nominally  responsible.  Our 
natural  wealth  is  so  great  and  our  revenues  so  elastic  that  we  have 
not  been  acutely  conscious  of  extravagance  and  waste  here  and  there. 
But  with  a  twenty-five  billion  dollar  war  debt  laid  on  the  shoulders  of 
American  business — or  most  largely  on  business — Congress  is  at  last 
considering  a  budget  system  as  an  indispensable  measure. 

With  immensely  increased  investments  in  state  enterprises,  North 
Carolina  is  interested  in  budgets,  state,  county,  and  municipal.  The 
General  Assembly  of  1919  created  a  State  Budget  Commission,  and 
also  provided  for  municipal  budget  systems. 

Chapter  38  of  Public  Laws  of  1919  says: 

Sec.  2.  There  is  hereby  created  a  budget  commission  to  be  composed 
at  all  times  of  the  Governor,  and  Chairman  of  the  Committees  on 
Appropriations,  and  on  Finance  of  the  House  of  Representatives  and 
of  the  Senate. 

Sec.  4.  The  State  Auditor  shall  furnish  estimates  of  financial  needs 
of  the  General  Assembly  and  the  Judiciary.  The  Auditor  also  shall 
furnish  balances  of  each  department,  institution,  etc.,  with  their  expendi- 
tures, etc. 

Sec.  12.  The  Legislature  may  increase  or  decrease  budget  items, 
but  special  appropriations  must  be  made  for  emergencies.  If  no  money 
is  in  treasury  special  tax  must  be  levied  therefor. 

SEC.  13.  The  members  of  the  budget  commission,  except  the  Gov- 
ernor, shall  receive  ten  dollars  per  day  while  they  are  actually  engaged  in 
work. 

Chapter  178  of  the  Public  Laws  of  1919  also  provides  for  municipal 
budgets.  It  provides  that  about  the  beginning  of  the  fiscal  year  the 
governing  body  of  each  municipality  shall  cause  to  be  prepared  a  plan 
for  financing  the  municipality  during  the  fiscal  year,  which  plan  shall 
be  known  as  the  budget  and  shall  be  based  upon  detailed  estimates 
furnished  by  the  several  departments  and  other  divisions  of  munici- 
pal government. 

These  are  the  provisions  that  we  have  at  present  relative  to  budgets. 
They  are  a  long  way  ahead  of  the  old  system  or  lack  of  system,  but 
we  think  they  can  be  greatly  improved.  Particularly  in  one  respect, 
and  that  is  by  creating  a  state  budget  commission  headed  by  a  com- 
petent budget  officer  who  shall  give  his  whole  time  to  the  study  and 
preparation  of  a  state  budget.  The  legislature  is  not  barred  of  its 
constitutional  rights  under  the  plan  proposed,  but  the  legislature 
should  refrain,  as  a  rule,  from  initiating  proposals  for  the  expendi- 
ture of  money.  What  we  need  is  a  responsible  executive,  and  no  ap- 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  1ST.  C.  165 

propriation  of  money  should  be  made  except  on  the  direct  request  of 
this  executive.  The  legislature  should  exercise  no  power  of  initiating 
budget  proposals,  but  under  the  recent  law  passed  it  may  increase  or 
decrease  the  budget  at  will,  the  total  or  any  detail  thereof.  The 
primary  functions  of  a  legislature  are  those  of  determining  the  laws 
under  which  the  people  shall  live,  and  of  serving  as  an  organ  of 
popular  opinion  in  respect  to  matters  political. 

The  Executive  Budget 

The  question  of  a  legislative  versus  an  executive  budget  is  at  bottom 
the  question  of  which  branch  of  the  government  is  to  be  captain  of 
the  ship  of  state.  The  founders  of  our  government  carefully  labeled 
the  functions  of  each  department.  The  duty  of  the  legislative  is  to 
pass  laws,  that  of  the  executive  is  to  see  that  these  laws  are  enforced. 
The  practical  working  out  of  this  system  has  shown  that  legislatures 
are  unwieldy  bodies.  Consequently,  the  President,  or  the  governor, 
or  the  mayor,  has  found  it  necessary  to  take  upon  himself  the  task  of 
planning  the  administration,  and  the  legislative  bodies  are  expected 
to  pass  the  measures  which  are  necessary  to  carry  out  such  plans. 

This  being  the  case,  there  are  then  at  least  three  possibilities,  (1) 
the  legislature  may  limit  itself  to  passing  laws  suggested  by  the  execu- 
tive, (2)  it  may  attempt  to  resume  its  former  place  of  leadership,  or 
(3)  it  may  follow  the  leadership  of  the  executive  but  maintain 
a  mind  and  will  of  its  own,  thus  having  an  opportunity  to  be  more 
than  a  mere  machine. 

The  first  possibility  suggested  is  not  in  harmony  with  our  ideas  of 
a  democratic  government.  The  second  does  not  seem  to  be  the  most 
efficient  or  feasible  method  under  present  conditions.  A  combination 
of  the  two  as  suggested  in  the  third  possibility  is,  therefore,  the  best 
working  basis.  By  this  plan  it  seems  more  probable  that  the  needs  of 
the  state  would  be  considered  in  their  entirety  and  that  different  pro- 
posals would  receive  consideration  more  nearly  in  proportion  to  their 
importance. 

2.  A  State  Purchasing  Agency. — We  next  discuss  the  question  of 
state  purchasing  agent.  Prior  to  1917  we  had  no  state  laws  regulat- 
ing the  purchasing  of  materials  and  supplies,  etc.,  for  public  purposes. 
All  this  was  done  by  the  various  departments  severally.  But  in  1917 
the  legislature  conceived  the  idea  of  a  system  of  purchasing  materials 
and  supplies  collectively,  and  this  idea  materialized  into  the  following 
provisions: 

Chapter  150,  Public  Laws  of  1917,  section  2,  provides  for  a  coopera- 
tive purchasing  committee,  which  shall  consist  of  the  superintendents 
of  the  State  Hospitals  at  Raleigh,  Morganton,  and  Goldsboro,  and  the 
superintendents  of  schools  for  deaf  and  dumb,  and  blind,  and  of  the 
Caswell  Training  School.  The  committee  shall  organize,  meet  quar- 


166          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

terly,  make  reports  of  supplies  purchased  and  price  paid,  etc.  The 
committee  shall  keep  a  full  and  complete  set  of  books,  which  shall 
show  in  detail  transactions  made.  Also,  any  state  institution  that  is 
not  a  member  may,  upon  request,  purchase  through  this  committee. 

Chapter  298  of  the  Public  Laws  of  1919,  section  1,  amended  the  above 
chapter  by  adding  the  following:  "and  the  president  of  the  University 
of  North  Carolina,  the  North  Carolina  State  College,  the  State  Normal, 
and  the  Eastern  Carolina  Teachers  Training  School." 

The  above  are  the  provisions  that  we  have  in  North  Carolina  relat- 
ing to  the  purchasing  agent,  and  since  they  have  been  in  force  they 
have  not  proven  satisfactory.  The  University,  for  instance,  has  been 
purchasing  supplies  through  this  committee,  with  the  result  that 
the  University  paid  $300  more  for  one  small  lot  of  lard  than  it  would 
have  had  to  pay  had  it  bought  direct  from  the  company.  In  another 
case  a  very  inferior  quality  of  flour,  that  could  not  be  sold  elsewhere, 
was  put  off  on  the  University  by  this  committee. 

If  all  materials  and  supplies  must  be  bought  through  a  state  pur- 
chasing agency,  there  may  easily  be  a  congestion  of  business  in  his 
office,  and  thus  delays  may  occur  at  times  when  supplies  are  most 
needed.  As  an  illustration  of  delays  in  state  offices — it  may  be  unavoid- 
able delays — I  mention  the  new  dormitory  at  the  State  University. 
After  a  wait  of  nearly  three  years  this  badly  needed  building  is  only 
just  now  in  the  stage  of  basement-story  construction. 

3.  A  State  Auditing  Bureau. — The  third  proposition  concerns  a  uni- 
form system  of  departmental  and  institutional  accounting  and  report- 
ing in  the  several  departments,  offices,  and  institutions  of  the  state 
government,  and  in  all  county  offices.  This  is  one  of  the  reforms 
that  we  most  urgently  need,  especially  in  county  offices.  Many  of  our 
county  officers  have  inadequate  conceptions  of  the  proper  way  to  keep 
the  books  of  their  offices.  As  a  result  they  can  make  no  intelligent 
report  of  the  conditions  and  affairs  of  their  offices.  The  usual  plan 
where  one  officer  is  elected  to  succeed  another  is  for  the  ex-officer  to 
stay  with  the  new  officer  for  a  few  days  or  weeks,  until  he  can  get  the 
hang  of  things,  as  he  is  accustomed  to  say.  Thus  we  have  things  going 
on  in  county  offices  from  year  to  year  in  the  same  old  way.  We  are 
not  criticizing  the  county  officers;  we  believe  they  are  doing  the  best 
they  know  and  that  in  the  main  they  are  honest  in  their  efforts.  We 
are  simply  proposing  a  system  of  helpful,  state-wide  supervision. 

Such  a  system,  or  a  similar  one,  was  provided  for  municipalities 
by  Chapter  136,  Sub-Chapter  XIV,  of  the  Public  Laws  of  1917,  which 
says:  "In  all  respects,  as  far  as  the  nature  of  the  cities'  business  per- 
mits, the  accounting  system  maintained  shall  conform  to  those  em- 
ployed by  progressive  business  concerns  and  approved  by  the  best 
usage.'  This  section  of  the  law  has  led  to  the  elimination  of  the  poor 
accounting  in  many  city  offices. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  IT.  OF  N.  C.  167 

We  have  been  speaking  of  inefficient,  insufficient  account-keeping  in 
county  and  city  offices,  but  not  all  the  bookkeeping  inefficiency  of  the 
state  is  here;  much  of  it  is  in  the  various  state  departments  and 
institutions.  In  almost  every  department  of  our  government  you  will 
find  a  different  system  of  account-keeping  and  reporting.  There  is  a 
lack  of  uniformity  in  financial  records,  and  the  public  accountants  are 
at  their  wits'  ends  to  classify  and  simplify  and  interpret  state  depart- 
mental accounts. 

In  Florida  they  have  had  in  use  for  several  years  just  such  a  system 
as  we  are  proposing  for  North  Carolina,  and  it  grew  out  of  just  such 
conditions  as  exist  in  this  state. 

The  first  year  this  system  was  organized  by  Mr.  W.  V.  Knott  he 
saved  the  counties  $80,000,  or  so  the  story  goes,  by  putting  in  a  uni- 
form system  of  accounting  and  auditing.  He  also  states  that  in  the 
same  year  he  saved  the  state  $60,000  in  the  same  way.  The  next  year 
the  legislature  of  Florida  was  so  well  pleased  with  the  work  he  had 
done  that  they  gave  him  two  assistants.  Since  that  time  the  system 
has  been  in  successful  operation  in  Florida. 

If  the  system  works  well  in  Florida,  South  Carolina,  and  Virginia, 
and  in  14  other  states,  we  think  there  is  no  doubt  about  its  working  well 
in  North  Carolina;  therefore  we  think  our  legislature  would  make  no 
mistake  in  adopting  such  a  system. 

Program  Summary 

1.  A  constitutional  convention,  not  as  a  condition  precedent  to  the 
further  proposals  we  make  but  as  a  progressive  measure  for  the  people 
of  North  Carolina. 

2.  We  propose  an  amendment  to  Chapter  38  of  the  Public  Laws  of 
1919,  section  2,  by  changing  the  section  so  as  to  read,  "to  be  composed 
of  the  governor,  and  a  qualified  elector  of  the  state  known  as  'state 
budget  director,'  and  the  chairman  of  the  committees  on  appropriations 
and   finance    of   the   House   of   Representatives    and    of  the    Senate." 

The  state  budget  director  should  be  appointed  by  the  governor  for  a 
period  of  four  years,  and  should  devote  his  entire  time  to  the  duties  of 
this  office.  The  said  budget  director  to  be  paid  a  salary  of  at  least 
$4,000  a  year. 

3.  The  state  purchasing  commission  not  having  worked  satisfactorily 
since  it  was  created,  and  not  having  been  fully  tried  out  in  other  states, 
the  committee  does  not  think  it  wise  to  recommend  a  state  purchasing 
agent. 

4.  We  propose  a  uniform  system  of  departmental  and  institutional 
accounting  in  the  several  departments,  offices  and  institutions  of  the 
state  government,  and  in  all  county  offices,  the  same  to  be  under  the 
direction  of  a  bureau  of  the  state  auditor's  office. 


168  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

(1)  Said  system  to  be  headed  by  a  bureau  chief  appointed  by  the 
State  Auditor  for  a  term  of  four  years. 

(2)  Said  bureau  chief  to  be  paid  a  salary  of  at  least  $4,000  per  year. 

(3)  He  shall  install  a  system  of  accounting  that  shall  be  uniform 
throughout  the  state  departments,  institutions,  and  counties;   and  it 
shall  further  be  his  duty  to  inspect  the  books  of  the  various  depart- 
ments, institutions,  and  county  offices  of  the  state  and  see  that  the  books 
are  properly  kept  and  that  reports  are  properly  made. 

(4)  The  said  bureau  chief  shall  be  given  such  other  powers  as  will 
enable  him  to  carry  out  this  statute. — M.  M.  Jernigan,  Chairman  Sub- 
Committee  on  State  Budgets,  State  Purchasing  Agencies,  and  Uniform 
State  Accounting  and  Reporting. 

March  29,  1920. 


CIVIC  REFORMS  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 


CONSOLIDATION  OF  STATE   DEPARTMENTS,  THE  SHORT  BALLOT,  THE   SECRET  BALLOT, 
OUR  STATE  PRIMARY  LAWS 

W.  D.  HARRIS,  SANFORD,  N.  C. 

1.  The  Consolidation  of  State  Boards 

North  Carolina  when  compared  with  other  states  is  not  heavily 
burdened  with  an  overplus  of  administrative  boards  and  agencies. 
However,  we  have  too  many  boards,  bureaus,  commissions,  and  the  like, 
and  the  situation  can  be  remedied  in  one  way  only — by  the  con- 
solidation of  state  boards.  Most  of  our  departments,  boards,  and 
commissions  are  substantially  independent  of  one  another,  and  they 
are  subject  only  to  the  nominal  supervision  of  the  Governor.  The 
Governor  of  North  Carolina  has  so  little  power  over  the  various  ex- 
ecutive agencies  that  efficient  government  is  almost  impossible.  The 
state  needs  unifying,  responsible,  executive  headship  in  order  to  make 
satisfactory  progress. 

At  the  outset  we  see  that  for  any  scheme  of  consolidation  to  be 
successful — one  might  go  so  far  as  to  say  any  scheme  of  state  govern- 
ment— more  power  must  be  given  the  Governor,  who  in  authoritative 
way  should  supervise  the  various  departments  of  the  state  government. 
The  heads  of  all  state  executive  agencies  should  be  held  strictly  to 
account  by  the  Chief  Executive. 

Briefly,  this  is  what  the  term  "administrative  consolidation"  means, 
so  far  as  state  governments  are  concerned — the  re-organization  of  the 
several  offices  and  agencies  concerned  with  the  administration  of  the 
state's  affairs  into  a  few  coordinate  departments,  with  department 
chiefs  responsible  to  the  Governor.  Integration  of  administration  is 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  169 

thus  brought  about,  obsolete  and  useless  offices  and  agencies  are  abol- 
ished, and  related  functions  are  grouped  under  the  same  departmental 
management.  Responsibility  for  the  administration  is  fixed;  the  Gov- 
ernor and  his  department  heads  are  placed  in  the  limelight  of  public 
opinion.  The  effective  operation  of  an  executive  budget  system  be- 
comes possible,  since  the  governor  is  no  longer  hampered  in  the 
formulation  and  execution  of  financial  plans  by  numerous  independent 
administrative  officers  and  agencies. 

This  idea  of  consolidation  is  not  a  new  one  in  American  government. 
When  the  federal  constitution  was  written  the  departmental  system 
was  adopted,  the  departmental  heads  being  appointed  by  and  directly 
responsible  to  the  President.  During  the  last  twenty  years  four 
hundred  cities  have  adopted  the  commission  form  of  government.  One 
hundred  and  thirty  cities  have  already  adopted  the  city-manager  form 
of  government.  The  movement  for  the  reorganization  and  consolida- 
tion of  state  administration  began  in  Oregon  in  1909,  when  the  People's 
Power  League  proposed  a  plan  for  the  reorganization  of  the  state 
government.  New  Jersey,  by  acts  of  its  legislature  in  1915,  1916,  and 
1918  has  made  some  progress  in  state  board  consolidation.  Minnesota 
was  the  first  state  where  a  comprehensive  plan  of  administrative  con- 
solidation was  proposed.  The  Governor  appointed  a  commission  which 
made  two  reports.  The  first  recommended  the  establishment  of  six 
departments;  namely,  finance,  public  domain,  public  welfare,  education, 
labor  and  commerce,  and  agriculture.  Its  second  report  eliminated 
the  department  of  finance.  A  few  functions,  such  as  those  of  the 
civil  service  commission  and  the  tax  commission,  were  not  included 
in  the  proposed  departments.  The  reorganization  did  not  affect  the  con- 
stitutional offices.  The  several  department  heads  were  to  hold  office 
at  the  pleasure  of  the  Governor  and  were  to  form  the  Governor's  cabi- 
net, similar  to  the  cabinet  of  the  President.  The  commission  recom- 
mended that  advisory  boards,  the  members  of  which  were  to  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  Governor,  with  overlapping  terms,  be  attached  to  the 
departments  of  public  domain,  welfare,  and  agriculture.  While  the 
work  of  this  commission  failed  to  accomplish  anything  for  Minnesota 
other  than  probably  the  passage  of  a  state  budget  law  in  1915,  it  has 
been  valuable  because  of  its  influence  upon  subsequent  consolidation 
plans  in  other  states. 

The  Iowa  committee  on  state  consolidation  in  1913  engaged  a  firm 
of  efficiency  engineers  to  make  a  survey  of  state  administration.  The 
final  report  of  this  firm  proposed  the  establishment  of  seven  depart- 
ments: agriculture,  commerce  and  industries,  public  works,  public 
health,  public  safety,  education,  charities  and  corrections.  A  report 
in  1915  was  made  by  the  committee  recommending  consolidation 
into  three  departments,  designated  as  social  progress,  industries,  and 


170          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

public   safety.     No   legislation   resulted   from   the   recommendation    of 
either  report. 

In  Oregon,  Delaware,  California,  and  New  York  plans  for  adminis- 
trative consolidation  have  been  recently  proposed  for  the  consideration 
of  the  legislatures.  The  interest  other  states  have  recently  manifested 
in  the  subject  of  administrative  consolidation  clearly  indicates  a  rapid 
spreading  of  the  movement.  The  1919  legislature  of  Ohio  authorized 
the  appointment  of  a  joint  committee  to  conduct  investigations  and  to 
prepare  a  plan  of  administrative  consolidation  for  consideration  by  the 
next  legislature.  The  governors  of  a  number  of  states,  notably  Indiana, 
Vermont,  Michigan,  Minnesota,  Nevada,  and  North  Dakota,  recom- 
mended the  consolidation  of  administrative  agencies  to  their  1919  legis- 
latures. 

Illinois  Leads. 

The  first  comprehensive  plan  of  administrative  consolidation  was 
adopted  by  Illinois  in  1917,  after  a  careful  survey  had  been  made  of 
the  state's  administrative  agencies.  In  1919  Idaho  and  Nebraska 
adopted  consolidation  plans  similar  to  that  of  Illinois.  An  amendment 
to  the  Massachusetts  constitution,  ratified  in  November,  1918,  provided 
for  the  reorganization  and  consolidation  of  the  administrative  agencies 
of  the  state  into  not  more  than  twenty  departments  which  were  to  be 
constituted  by  statute.  The  1919  legislature  recently  enacted  a  law 
which  put  this  amendment  into  operation  on  Dec.  1,  1919. 

As.  to  how  the  consolidation  plan  has  worked  in  Illinois  I  quote 
Governor  Lowden,  who,  by  the  way,  has  sprung  into  national  promi- 
nence largely  because  of  the  success  of  this  plan  in  his  state: 

"The  civil  administrative  code  went  into  effect  on  July  1,  1917.  It 
amounted  to  a  revolution  in  government.  Under  it  a  reorganization 
of  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  boards,  commissions,  and 
independent  agencies  was  effected.  Nine  departments,  with  extensive 
and  real  power  vested  in  each  head,  have  taken  the  place  of  those  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  bodies,  which  were  abolished,  and  discharged, 
under  the  general  supervision  of  the  Governor,  the  details  of  govern- 
ment for  which  the  Governor  is  responsible.  At  the  time  the  bill  was 
up  for  consideration  it  was  claimed  that  it  would  result  in  both  effi- 
ciency and  economy. 

"It  has  more  than  justified  all  the  expectations  that  were  formed 
concerning  it.  The  functions  of  the  government  are  discharged  at  the 
capitol.  The  Governor  is  in  daily  contact  with  his  administration  in 
all  its  activities.  [Quite  a  contrast  with  the  figurehead  position  the 
Governor  of  North  Carolina  occupies  under  the  law.  Fortunately,  his 
position  is  much  more  than  that  in  fact.]  Unity  and  harmony  of  ad- 
ministration have  been  attained,  and  vigor  and  energy  of  administra- 
tion enhanced." 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  171 

Governor  Lowden  then  tells  how  the  new  plan  surpassed  expectations 
during  the  critical  times  of  the  war,  when  Illinois,  through  the  greater 
elasticity  and  efficiency  of  her  new  form  of  government,  was  able  to 
meet  every  emergency  of  the  war  without  an  extraordinary  session  of 
her  legislature. 

Idaho  is  enthusiastic  over  the  consolidation  plan  adopted  by  its  1919 
legislature.  This  act  abolished  some  forty-six  offices,  boards,  and  com- 
missions, and  consolidated  their  functions  into  nine  departments, 
whose  heads  are  all  responsible  to  the  governor. 

Nebraska's  civil  administrative  code  creates  six  departments:  finance, 
agriculture,  labor,  trade  and  commerce,  public  welfare,  and  public 
works.  This  reorganization  does  not  include  the  constitutional  admin- 
istrative officers  and  four  constitutional  boards— the  state  railroad 
commission,  the  board  of  regents,  the  board  of  commissioners  of  state 
institutions,  and  the  board  of  educational  lands  and  funds.  Each  of 
the  six  departments  has  a  single  head  with  a  secretary  with  an  annual 
salary  of  $5,000.  These  secretaries  are  appointed  by  the  Governor  with 
the  Senate's  approval  for  a  term  of  two  years.  No  subordinate  officers 
are  designated  in  the  code*.  The  Governor  appoints  the  employees  of 
the  departments  after  consultation  with  the  secretaries.  The  secre- 
taries prescribe  the  regulations  for  their  respective  departments. 

Time  and  space  will  not  permit  me  to  discuss  the  plan  adopted  by 
Massachusetts.  It  is  very  complicated  and  involved,  and  would  not 
greatly  help  us  to  solve  the  problem  in  North  Carolina. 

The  situation  in  our  state  today  is  noteworthy  because  of  the  seem- 
ing lack  of  any  plan  or  system  in  creating  and  adding  various  state 
boards,  commissions,  bureaus,  and  various  other  executive  agencies. 
I  know  of  no  panacea  for  our  ills.  But  the  fact  remains,  which  any 
fair-minded  observer  will  note,  that  state  government  is  far  from 
attaining  a  reasonable  efficiency  in  North  Carolina. 

To  re-order  the  six  executive  departments  of  the  civil  establishment, 
the  twenty-four  administrative  boards,  bureaus,  and  commissions,  the 
boards  of  trust  for  the  fifteen  state  educational  institutions,  and  the 
seven  charitable  institutions,  the  following  plan  of  consolidation  is 
suggested  for  the  consideration  of  those  interested  in  civic  reform  in 
North  Carolina. 

A  prefatory  word  might  be  said  as  to  the  constitutional  officers  who 
must  be  chosen  by  popular  vote.  In  our  state  these  are:  the  secretary 
of  state,  auditor,  treasurer,  superintendent  of  public  instruction,  and 
the  attorney  general.  The  other  executive  heads  should  be  appointed 
by  the  Governor  by  and  with  the  consent  of  the  Senate  for  a  term  of 
either  two  or  four  years.  Four  thousand  dollars  is  recommended  as 
a  minimum  annual  salary  for  such  executive  heads.  For  some  of 
the  boards  an  unpaid  advisory  board  of  three  to  seven  members  would 
probably  be  valuable  to  attain  effectiveness.  A  complete  list  and  ac- 


172  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

count  of  the  workings  of  the  parts  of  the  state  government  can  be 
found  in  the  North  Carolina  Blue  Book.  We  here  present  an  outline  of 
the  ten  departments  proposed  under  a  consolidation  plan. 


I.    The  Department  of  Finance 

1.  A  State  Auditor,  who  shall,   in  addition  to  his  present  duties, 
(1)    act  as  a  comptroller  of  accounts  with  general   supervision  over 
all  state  expenditures,  (2)  prepare  the  budget  biennially  for  the  budget 
commission,  (3)  prescribe  and  have  supervision  over  a  system  of  uni- 
form  accounting,   auditing,   and    reporting   by   all   agencies   whatever 
handling  public  moneys  in  the  state,  this  duty  being  under  the  direct 
charge  of  an  assistant  auditor.     The  state  auditor  would  be  the  head 
of  the  Department  of  Finance. 

2.  The  State  Treasurer. 

3.  The  Tax  Commissioner,  who  would  have  charge  of  all  tax  affairs 
now  under  the   Corporation   Commission,   and   who   also   would   have 
charge  of  automobile  licenses  and  funds,  instead  of  the  Secretary  of 
State  as  at  present. 


II.    The  Department  of  Public  Welfare 

1.  A  State  Hoard  of  Charities  and  Public  Welfare,  of  seven  members. 

2.  A   State   Prison   Board,    of   five   members,   who   would   also   have 
absolute  power  to  recommend  pardons  and  paroles  to  the  Governor, 
who  could  not  pardon  except  on  the  recommendation  of  this  board. 

The  Department  of  Public  Welfare  would  be  headed  by  a  public 
welfare  commissioner,  assisted  by  an  executive  secretary,  the  most 
competent  to  be  secured  anywhere  in  the  United  States. 


III.    The  Department  of  Public  Works  and  Buildings 

1.  The  State  Highway  Commission. 

2.  The  Department  of  Public  Buildings  and  Grounds,  which  would 
absorb  the  present  building  commission  and  State  Architect. 

3.  The  Fisheries  Commission. 

4.  The  State  Geological  and  Economic  Survey. 

The  Board  of  Internal  Improvements  might  be  advantageously  abol- 
ished; also  the  State  Purchasing  Commission. 

In  this  grouping  could  be  placed  the  state  standard  keeper  and  the 
firemen's  relief  fund. 

A  Commissioner  of  Public  Works  and  Buildings  would  have  general 
supervision  over  this  department. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  173 

IV.    Department  of  Education 

1.  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  who  would  head  this 
department. 

2.  A  Board  of  Education  as  at  present. 

3.  A  State  Bureau  of  Community  Service,  reorganized  to  function 
with  full  effect  under  the  law. 

4.  The  State  Library. 

5.  A  Board  of  Trustees  for  the  University. 

6.  A  Board  of  Trustees  for  N.  C.  State  College  of  Agriculture  and 
Engineering. 

7.  A  Combined  Normal  School  Board. 


V.    Department  of  Public  Health 

1.  A  Public  Health  Commissioner  who  heads  this  department. 

2.  A  Board  of  Public  Health,  of  seven  unsalaried  members. 

3.  A  State  Laboratory  of  Hygiene. 

4.  A  State  Sanitation  Board  and  system. 

VI.    The  Department  of  Labor  and  Printing 

This  department  should  be  given  power  (1)  to  enforce  the  return  of 
industrial  statistics,  and  (2)  to  investigate  and  report  to  the  legisla- 
ture a  plan  for  arbitrating  industrial  disputes,  as  in  New  Zealand, 
Canada,  Massachusetts,  and  other  states.  State  printing  aside,  this 
department  seems  almost  useless  unless  it  can  have  an  enlargement  of 
powers  and  functions  and  render  some  adequate  service  to  the  state. 

VII.    The  Department  of  Commerce 

1.  The  Corporation  Commission. 

2.  The  Department  of  Insurance. 

3.  The  Department  of  Banking. 

VIII.    The  Department  of  the  Attorney  General 

The  attorney-general  should  exercise  supervision  over  all  solicitors 
and  should  give  his  whole  time  to  the  state;  and  the  hiring  of  special 
attorneys  should  be  discouragd.  Also,  his  annual  reports  should  pre- 
sent the  law  and  order  status  of  the  state  as  revealed  in  the  jury  ver- 
dicts of  the  courts. 

The  legislative  reference  library  mught  be  put  under  this  depart- 
ment. 


174  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

IX.    The  Department  of  the  Adjutant-General 
X.    The  Department  of  Agriculture  and  Immigration 

This  department  might  be  advantageously  reorganized  and  modeled, 
say,  upon  that  of  Wisconsin.  Some  department  in  the  state  mani- 
festly ought  to  be  specifically  charged  with  the  business  of  attracting 
worthy  home-seekers  into  the  state,  and  of  protecting  them  from  pro- 
fessional land-sharks. 

2.  A  State  Constabulary 

The  remarkable  records  of  the  Texas  Rangers,  the  New  York  State 
Police,  and  the  Pennsylvania  State  Constabulary  have  caused  wide- 
spread agitation  for  a  similar  police  force  in  this  state.  Other  states 
having  such  police  organizations  are:  Michigan,  Maryland,  West  Vir- 
ginia, Nevada,  and  New  Jersey.  This  agitation  is  largely  due  to  the 
unparalleled  crime  wave  of  the  country  since  the  Great  War,  but 
the  committee  has  no  recommendations  to  make  in  regard  to  such  a 
force  in  North  Carolina  at  the  present  time. 

8.  The  Short  Ballot,  the  Australian  Ballot,  and  Our  Primary  Laws 

Many  students  and  leaders  of  popular  government — notably  Presi- 
dent Wilson — have  urged  the  short  ballot.  It  means  simply  the  plac- 
ing of  a  small  number  of  names  on  the  ballot,  thus  doing  away  with 
many  elective  offices,  making  them  appointive  instead.  The  chief  argu- 
ment for  the  short  ballot  is  that  by  having  to  make  fewer  selections 
voters  are  enabled  to  choose  more  wisely,  and  moreover  that  it  guaran- 
tees unified  government  under  responsible  headship. 

In  regard  to  the  Australian,  or  secret,  ballot,  it  might  be  noted  that 
North  Carolina  is  one  of  the  only  six  states  in  the  Union  that  still 
cling  to  the  old  open  ballot  idea.  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  New  Mexico, 
Mississippi,  and  Delaware  are  the  other  states.  To  promote  fairness  at 
an  election,  to  do  full  justice  to  the  individual  voter,  it  is  urged  that 
the  secret  ballot  be  adopted.  The  state  owes  it  to  its  voters  to  protect 
them  from  unscrupulous  election  workers,  and  to  this  end  it  should  do 
everything  in  its  power.  The  surest  means  to  this  end  that  has  yet  been 
worked  out  is  the  Australian  ballot. 

In  regard  to  our  primary  laws  it  might  be  said  that  the  chief  defect 
and  the  one  most  frequently  noted  is  the  lack  of  a  civil  remedy  for 
election  wrongs.  This  defect  prevents  an  injured  party  from  obtain- 
ing redress  except  by  having  his  opponent  indicted  and  convicted — a 
very  difficult  thing  to  do. — W.  D.  Harris,  Chairman  Sub-Committee  on 
Consolidation  of  State  Boards,  and  Suffrage. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  175 

CIVIC  REFORMS  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 

COMMUNITY  ORGANIZATION,  COMMUNITY  INCORPORATION,  AND 
AND   EXTENDED  SELF-RULE 


J.  T.  WILSON,  RURAL  HALL,  N.  C. 

All  reforms  should  begin  at  home,  and  should  aim  first  and  foremost 
at  the  physical  and  moral  uplift  of  the  individual  citizen.  In  making 
proposals  for  the  extension  of  local  self-government,  the  incorporation 
of  rural  townships,  and  the  organization  of  community  life  in  country 
areas,  I  begin  with  what  seems  to  me  to  be  nearest  to  the  individual 
citizen,  and  probably  the  most  vital — the  community  problem. 

Community  Organization 

There  is  a  definite  need  in  every  community  for  a  center  of  social 
activities — a  fit  place  where  both  boys  and  girls,  young  people  and  old, 
can  feel  at  home  in  leisure  hours.  The  boys  loafing  around  drug 
stores,  smoking  cigarettes  and  drinking  "dopes,"  the  young  girls 
sauntering  up  and  down  the  streets,  and  the  overcrowded  moving-pic- 
ture shows  in  every  little  town  are  proof  of  this  need.  Most  people 
will  readily  admit  that  these  are  not  always  the  best  forms  of  amuse- 
ment, and  most  people  will  agree  that  there  ought  to  be  in  every  com- 
munity a  place  where  the  boys  and  girls  can  gather  for  wholesome 
recreation  and  enjoyment,  for  singing,  dancing,  debates,  lectures,  and 
reading. 

The  true  answer  to  such  a  problem  is  the  community  house — a  temple 
of  community  fellowship.  As  some  one  has  said:  It  should  be  a  social 
recreative  center  so  democratic  as  to  attract  the  humblest,  so  whole- 
some as  to  appeal  to  the  exclusive,  and  so  broad  in  its  scope  as  to 
bring  youth,  maturity,  and  age  into  closer  companionship. 

1.  The  community  house  should  develop  the  recreative  and  social 
instincts  of  the  entire  community.  In  order  to  do  this  it  should  be 
centrally  located.  It  should  contain  a  reception  room,  a  reading  room, 
a  ladies'  rest-room,  a  swimming  pool  if  possible,  shower  baths,  and  an 
auditorium.  Above  all  else,  it  should  be  made  attractive  to  the  rural 
population,  and  they  should  be  able  to  feel  perfectly  at  home  here  while 
in  town. 

If  a  building  cannot  be  provided  through  public  subscription  or  local 
taxation,  it  is  often  found  convenient  to  use  the  school  house  during 
the  summer  months  for  this  purpose.  However,  a  separate  building 
is  better,  and  the  results  obtained,  as  is  shown  by  communities  that 
have  such  a  house,  amply  repay  the  community  for  the  expenditure. 
Salisbury  was  among  the  first  half  dozen  towns  in  the  United  States  to 


176  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

establish  a  Community  House.  Goldsboro  and  Henderson  are  prepar- 
ing to  erect  such  a  building  as  a  memorial  to  the  dead  heroes  of  the 
Great  War. 

Country  Community  Incorporation 

Rural  community  organization  on  a  legal  basis  as  allowed  by  a  1915 
statute  of  our  legislature  is  a  form  of  local  self-expression,  self-pro- 
tection and  self-regulation  that  has  hardly  yet  begun  in  North  Carolina. 
A  half  dozen  communities  or  so  have  been  incorporated  under  this  law, 
and  the  officers  chosen,  but  so  far  these  country  corporations  exist  only 
on  paper.  They  have  done  little  more  than  to  levy  a  small  school  tax 
in  an  instance  or  two. 

The  law  on  our  statute  books  today  is  entitled  "An  act  to  provide 
for  the  incorporation  of  rural  communities."  It  gives  to  the  registered 
voters  of  a  country  community,  incorporated  as  such,  the  right  to 
adopt,  amend,  or  repeal  ordinances  provided  such  action  is  not  incon- 
sistent with  the  laws  of  the  state;  to  pass  regulations  concerning  the 
public  roads  and  public  schools;  the  promotion  of  public  health,  police 
protection,  and  the  abatement  of  nuisances;  the  care  of  paupers,  aged 
or  infirm  persons,  and  the  control  of  vagrancy;  the  collection  of  com- 
munity taxes;  the  establishment  and  support  of  public  libraries,  parks, 
halls,  playgrounds,  fairs,  and  other  agencies  of  recreation,  education, 
music,  art,  and  morals. 

Besides  enjoying  special  privileges  of  this  sort,  these  incorporated 
communities  may  take  any  and  all  necessary  steps  looking  to  the 
standardizing  of  community  products,  and  the  adoption  of  community 
labels,  brands,  trademarks  and  so  on,  and  to  cooperative  community 
marketing.  In  this  way,  it  may,  through  its  own  elected  directors, 
adopt  standards  for  the  production  and  marketing  of  produce,  canned 
goods,  and  such  commodities,  and  in  the  same  way  encourage  the 
production  of  those  things  that  will  in  the  long  run  benefit  the  whole 
community  most. 

An  alert  country  community  could  hardly  fail  to  profit  by  incor- 
porating for  such  community  purposes. 

This  law  is  whole-heartedly  recommended  to  the  country  communi- 
ties of  North  Carolina. 

I  may  add  that  the  state  has  a  Rural  Community  Organization 
Bureau  in  Raleigh,  in  charge  of  a  state  organizer,  supported  by  a  fund 
of  $25,000  a  year.  But  so  far  no  reports  have  been  published  by  this 
bureau,  and  the  public  has  no  authoritative  statement  concerning  its 
activities  and  achievements  during  the  five  years  of  its  existence.  We 
recommend  that  such  a  report  in  detail  be  given  to  the  state  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment.  It  is  proper  to  add  that  we  have  received 
an  official  report  of  this  state  bureau  just  as  we  go  to  the  printers 
with  copy  for  this  chapter. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  IN".  C.  177 

Local  Self-Rule  in  North  Carolina 

The  unit  of  local  self-government,  such  as  it  is  in  North  Carolina, 
is  the  county.  Whether  or  not  the  state  government  effectively  ex- 
presses the  will  of  the  people  as  a  whole  depends  greatly  upon  whether 
or  not  those  same  people  have  been  able  to  express  their  will  effectively 
in  county  governments. 

That  local  self-rule  may  be  extended  in  North  Carolina  and  that  the 
counties  of  the  state  may  enjoy  the  largest  possible  measure  of  self- 
regulation  consistent  with  the  welfare  of  the  commonwealth  as  a  whole, 
the  following  amendments  to  the  constitution  are  submitted  for  dis- 
cussion: 

Proposed  Constitutional  Provisions  for  Local  Self-Government 

1.  Any  county  in  the  state  shall  be  permitted  under  general  law  to 
establish  a  form  of  government,  not  in  conflict  with  the  general  laws 
of  the  state,  and  shall  have  power  to  draft  a  charter  providing  for 
itself  unified   county  government   under   responsible   headship.     Such 
charter  shall  provide  for  county  officers  and  their  terms  of  office,  and 
shall  also  provide  that  powers  heretofore  exercised  by  county  officers 
for  and  on  behalf  of  the  state  shall  be  exercised  by  such  new  officers 
as  may  be  provided.     This  charter  shall,  after  having  been  approved 
by  a  majority  of  the  duly  registered  voters  of  the  county  at  a  regular 
or   special   election,    supersede   the   existing   government   of   the   said 
county. 

2.  The  legislature  shall  provide  by  law  that  any  county  so  drafting 
and  establishing  a  local  government  under  the  above  provision  shall 
have  the  power  to  legislate  and  enact  laws  that  affect  and  are  peculiar 
to  the  county,  and  that  are  not  detrimental  to  the  state  nor  conflicting 
with  state  laws,   in  such  manner  as  the  duly  registered  voters  may 
provide. 

3.  The  legislature  shall  provide  by  law  that  in  such  counties  the 
county-commission  or  the  county-manager  plan  of  government  and  the 
short  ballot  may  be  adopted  or  not,  according  to  the  will  of  the  ma- 
jority of  the  voters  voting. 

Unified  County  Government  Under  Responsible  Headship 

In  order  to  effect  necessary  changes  in  the  conduct  of  county  business 
and  county  affairs  in  North  Carolina,  and  to  abolish  the  irresponsible, 
unbusinesslike,  wasteful  methods  that  prevail  at  present  in  the  large 
majority  of  our  counties,  I  suggest: 

1.  That  county  business  and  business  efficiency  be  exalted  above 
childish  partisan  politics,  and  that  men  should  be  chosen  or  appointed 
to  office  with  sole  reference  to  their  fitness  and  efficiency.  I  am  well 

12 


178          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

aware  that  what  I  am  proposing  looks  like  an  iridescent  dream.  Never- 
theless, it  is  a  political  ideal  toward  which  we  must  move  just  as  fast  as 
human  nature  is  capable. 

2.  As  the  foundation  of  democratic  government  is  the  voter,  we  should 
start  with  adopting  the  Australian  ballot  in  county  elections  with  the 
hope  that  we  may  at  last  choose  an  intelligent  ballot — the  short  ballot — 
in  order  that  we  may  know  for  whom  and  for  what  we  vote. 

3.  For  counties  adopting  local  self-government  of  the  sort  provided 
under  the  proposed  constitutional  amendments,  I  suggest  the  commis- 
sion or  commission-manager  form  of  county  government.     This  means 
a  board  of  three  or  more  county  commissioners,  elected  directly  by  the 
people,  to  serve  for  a  term  of  six  years,  one-third  going  out  every  two 
years.     This  commission  should  have  power  to  appoint  from  a  civil 
service  list  all  such  officers  as  are  not  elected  directly  by  the  people, 
and  such  appointees  should  not  be  confined  to  the  county.     The  com- 
mission should  elect  its  own  chairman,  who  should   be  a  successful 
business  man  of  good  character.    He  should  give  his  entire  time  to  the 
county  affairs  as  the  responsible  head  of  county  government,  and  his 
salary  should  not  be  less  than  four  thousand  dollars  a  year  in  any 
county.     He  should  be  the  executive  officer  of  the  county  commission 
in  supervising  the  work  of  all  other  county  officials,  in  controlling  the 
finances  of  the  county  upon  a  budget  plan,  in  authorizing  the  purchase 
and  sale  of  county  property,  in  enforcing  the  laws  of  the  state,  and  in 
enacting  and  enforcing  such  local  laws,  not  in  conflict  with  the  general 
laws  of  the  state,  as  are  allowed  under  the  terms  of  the  county  charter. 

The  members  of  this  commission,  except  the  chairman,  should  serve 
without  pay,  but  all  expenses  incident  to  commission  meetings  and 
business  should  be  paid  out  of  the  county  treasury.  They  should  meet 
at  stated  intervals,  not  less  than  four  times  a  year,  and  at  one  of  these 
meetings  the  budget  for  the  new  year  should  be  its  stated  business. 
At  another  the  annual  statement  of  county  finances  should  be  finally 
prepared  for  publication. 

4.  The  initiative  and  referendum  should  be  provided  for  in  all  coun- 
ties having  a  local  self-governing  charter,  this  question  to  be  settled 
by  a  majority  of  the  voters  voting. 

In  short,  I  suggest  a  form  of  unified  county  government  under  re- 
sponsible headship — a  county  commission  acting  as  a  one-chambered 
body  for  legislation  and  administration  in  all  local  matters  under  the 
general  laws  of  the  state. — J.  T.  Wilson,  Chairman  Sub-Committee  on 
Community  Organization,  Community  Incorporation,  and  Local  Self- 
Rule. 

April  19,  1920. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  !NT.  C.  179 

CIVIC  REFORMS  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 


UNIFIED  COUNTY  GOVERNMENT,  UNIFORM  COUNTY  ACCOUNTING,  AND  REPORTING  AND 
STATE-WIDE  AUDITING   OF  COUNTY  ACCOUNTS 


CHARLES  L.  NICHOLS,  BBEVABD,  N.  C. 

The  county  in  North  Carolina  is  the  product  of  two  full  centuries 
of  legislative  tinkering.  As  a  result  many  imperfections  in  its  organi- 
zation and  operation  are  distinctly  manifest.  It  is  a  question  of  no 
slight  importance.  In  1913,  county  government  in  North  Carolina 
was  an  eight-million-dollar  affair,  which  was  approximately  twice  the 
cost  of  state  government  at  that  time.  The  following  items  of  county 
expenditure  in  1913  will  convey  an  idea  of  its  magnitude: 

Courthouse  salaries    $1,022,000 

Road  building  and  repairs 900,000 

Charities,  hospitals,  and  corrections 358,000 

Interest   payments    324,000 

Protection  of  persons  and  property 200,000 

Nevertheless,  what  citizen  of  our  state,  in  any  county,  is  in  any 
position  to  say  whether  the  county  revenues  are  expended  wisely  or 
unwisely,  effectively  or  wastefully?  What  county  in  our  common- 
wealth could,  at  this  moment,  at  the  instance  of  a  sovereign  command, 
render  an  accurate,  final  account  of:  (1)  county  assets;  (2)  county 
indebtedness;  (3)  county  receipts;  and  (4)  county  expenditures?  The 
whole  situation  has  been  well  depicted  in  the  following  language: 
County  government  is  a  headless  affair,  uninformed,  unregulated,  irre- 
sponsible, and  governed  by  local  customs  mostly — regardless  of  law. 

Renovation  is  expedient.  Our  problem  is  to  ascertain  what  plan  of 
reorganization  would  be  most  effective  and  salutary  and  at  the  same 
time  most  practical. 

Government  grows  out  of  the  nature  of  human  nature  in  this  or 
that  social  area.  It  is  an  organism,  not  a  mechanism;  but  like  a  prime 
fruit  tree  it  constantly  needs  pruning-knife  attention.  The  American 
mind  regards  governmental  institutions  with  vague  but  quite  distinct 
reverence,  and  has  ever  entertained  a  conservative  feeling  toward  out- 
and-out  changes.  The  same  spirit  informs  the  judicial  mind,  and  is 
expressed  in  "stare  decisis."  It  is  only  when  public  opinion  demands 
in  unequivocal  tones  that  the  court  decides  in  contravention  of  prece- 
dents. Even  then,  these  interpreters  of  the  law  beat  the  game  by 
means  of  legal  fictions:  the  law  is  changed  in  substance,  but  not  in 
form.  And  this  is  the  secret  of  success  in  the  reorganization  of  county 
government.  We  must  recognize  this  ever-present  feeling  of  conserva- 
tism. We  must  change  county  government  in  substance,  but  as  little 
as  possible  in  form.  Constitutional  changes  are  a  last  resort.  But  in 


180          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

county  government  there  is  urgent  need  for  a  program  that  can  be  put 
into  effect  at  once.  Statutory  modifications  of  the  present  system, 
therefore,  constitute  the  most  practical  and  effective  changes. 

In  view  of  the  foregoing  considerations,  I  submit  the  following  defi- 
nite plan  of  county  government  renovation — a  cross-section  of  several 
proposed  plans  with  certain  advantages  chosen  out  of  each,  as  pecu- 
liarly adapted  to  state-wide  conditions  in  North  Carolina.  The  changes 
necessitate  nothing  more  than  statutory  modifications  of  the  present 
system.  Article  VII,  section  14,  of  the  Constitution  of  North  Carolina 
confers  upon  the  General  Assembly  adequate  authority  to  provide  by 
statute  for  all  the  proposals  herein  advocated. 

Program  Proposals 

1.  County   government   unified   under   a   responsible   headship,   say 
under  the  chairman  of  the  Board  of  County  Commissioners,  his  dual 
role  being  that   (1)   of  member  of  this  administrative  body,  and    (2) 
of  chief  executive  of  the  county,  by  and  with  the  counsel  of  his  fellow 
board  members. 

The  board  of  county  commissioners,  consisting  of  three  or  more  elec- 
tive members,  including  the  chairman,  shall  be  the  administrative 
county  organ,  through  direct  agency  of  the  chairman,  who  is  charged 
with  proper  administration  of  all  county  affairs.  All  other  county 
officers  are  placed  ancillary  to  the  board  in  definite  ways  to  a  definite 
extent  each. 

2.  A  Bureau  of  County  Auditing  in  the  office  of  the  State  Auditor. 
The  Comptroller  of  County  Accounts  to  institute  a  uniform  system  of 
county  accounting  and  reporting,  and  to  maintain  a  state-wide  system 
of  county  account  auditing. 

Explanations  in  Brief 

1.  Unified  County  Government 

The  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  County  Commissioners. — This  officer 
would  be  to  a  county  what  a  mayor  is  to  a  city — the  chief  executive 
officer — and  at  the  same  time  chairman  of  the  administrative  body, 
a  power  to  give  effect  to  its  will.  The  chairman  should  be  elected,  say, 
for  a  six-year  term,  by  popular  vote,  under  the  general  election  laws 
of  the  state.  He  should  be  a  successful  business  man  of  good  character; 
he  should  give  his  full  time  to  the  business  of  the  county,  and  his 
salary  should  be  of  a  magnitude  sufficient  to  attract  men  of  experience 
and  ability — the  exact  amount  depending  upon  the  population  and 
wealth  of  the  county.  To  insure  responsiveness  to  popular  will,  pro- 
vision should  be  made  for  his  recall  at  any  time,  requiring  the  signa- 
tures of  a  majority  of  the  qualified  voters  for  the  petition  to  become 
effective. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  181 

The  duties  devolving  upon  such  an  officer  would  be:  1.  Adminis- 
trative, (a)  He  should  preside  over  all  meetings  of  the  board;  (b)  he 
should  submit  recommendations  to  the  board  of  such  measures  as  he 
deems  expedient  to  proper  administration.  2.  Executive.  (a)  He 
should  execute  and  enforce  all  resolutions  and  orders  of  the  board, 
and  see  that  all  state  laws  are  faithfully  carried  out;  (b)  he  should 
have  power  to  appoint  all  minor  county  officers  and  employees  whose 
selection  is  not  otherwise  provided  for  by  the  Constitution  and  laws 
of  the  state,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  board;  (c)  he  should  collect 
all  reports  and  accounts  from  the  several  county  officers  and  be  ready 
at  all  times  to  give  any  instructions  pertinent  to  the  preparation  of 
same;  (d)  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  board,  he  should  purchase  all 
supplies  and  materials  used  by  all  county  officers,  departments  and 
institutions;  (e)  he  should  execute  all  county  contracts  on  behalf  of 
the  board;  (f)  perform  such  other  duties  as  the  board  might  require. 

The  Hoard  of  County  Commissioners. — The  board  would  be  the 
legislative  and  administrative  body  of  the  county  in  all  its  business 
affairs.  Together  with  the  chairman,  there  should  be  three  or  more 
members  elected  in  the  county  at  large  for  six-year  terms,  one-third 
of  the  board,  or  as  nearly  a  third  as  possible  and  practicable,  retiring 
every  two  years.  Each  commissioner,  including  the  chairman,  should 
be  subject  to  recall.  As  compensation  they  should  receive  a  per  diem 
salary  for  attendance  upon  sessions,  plus  expenses  actually  incurred 
in  attendance  upon  meetings  and  otherwise.  Through  the  agency  of 
the  chairman,  the  board  should  be  charged  with  the  proper  administra- 
tion of  county  affairs,  including  a  general  supervision  and  control  over 
the  penal  and  charitable  institutions,  roads,  bridges,  taxes,  finances, 
including  the  finances  of  county  schools,  health  departments,  welfare 
departments,  and  all  other  offices  handling  public  moneys,  etc.  The 
board  should  enact  administrative  rules  governing  the  manner  in 
which  the  chairman  and  other  county  officers  and  employees  shall  per- 
form their  duties,  in  accordance  with  other  provisions  herein  con- 
tained, and  should  take  the  proper  action  in  regard  to  the  recom- 
mendations of  the  chairman.  And,  finally,  the  board  should  make  a 
business-like  annual  statement  of  county  finances  as  hereinafter  indi- 
cated. 

Other  County  Officers. — Statutory  modification  conferring  administra- 
tive authority  upon  the  board  over  all  elective  county  officers  to  a 
definite  extent  is  indispensable.  Abundant  experience  has  conclusively 
demonstrated  that  efficiency  in  civic  organization  can  be  attained  only 
by  systematic  subordination  of  all  branches  and  parts  to  a  planning, 
directing,  responsible  head.  The  offices  would  remain  the  same  in 
form;  they  would  be  filled,  as  at  present,  by  popular  election;  they 
would  continue  to  discharge  the  duties  imposed  by  law  and  in  the 
manner  prescribed  by  law,  etc.  But  they  should  be  placed  ancillary 


182          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

to  the  board  to  the  extent  required  by  expediency.  The  sheriff,  the 
treasurer,  and  the  register  of  deeds  could  be  readily  subjected  to  the 
administrative  supervision  of  the  board;  the  clerk,  whose  duties  are 
primarily  connected  with  the  court,  could  be  supervised  in  the  col- 
lection of  and  accounting  for  fees,  commissions,  etc.;  the  duties  of 
the  county  board  of  education  are  entirely  divorced  from  county 
administration,  and  so  its  members  would  be  exempt  from  such  super- 
vision, except  in  so  far  as  the  commissioners  levy  school  taxes.  To 
this  definite  extent,  then,  the  board,  through  the  chairman,  should 
have  power  to  inspect  the  work  of  these  offices  and  exact  strict  com- 
pliance with  its  resolutions.  The  present  independence  of  action 
and  lack  of  cooperation  in  county  offices  would  thus  be  greatly  re- 
duced, and  the  constant  official  scrutiny  suggested  would  impel  these 
officers  to  keep  the  business  of  their  offices  in  order. 

Fashioned  upon  the  above  plan  of  reorganization,  county  government 
would  be  unified  under  responsible  headship  with  its  present  disad- 
vantages largely  overcome  and  its  working  difficulties  eliminated. 

Better  county  government  is  something  more  than  a  mere  scheme 
of  organization.  Even  with  proper  administration  of  county  affairs 
achieved  through  the  subordination  of  county  offices  to  a  directing  and 
responsible  head,  what  about  county  offices  in  themselves?  In  1915, 
fifty  counties  in  North  Carolina  were  on  a  salary  basis  and  fifty  were 
on  a  fee  basis.  The  fee  system  of  compensating  county  officers  is  un- 
doubtedly the  better  plan  in  sparsely  populated  counties  where  wealth 
is  small  and  courthouse  business  small  in  volume.  In  such  counties 
the  fee  plan  is  cheap,  and  provides  an  incentive  to  official  activity. 
But  every  citizen  of  the  county  should  know  approximately  the  amount 
of  compensation  each  officer  receives  under  the  fee  system.  For  in- 
stance, a  few  years  ago  the  treasurer  of  New  Hanover  county  was 
receiving  $5,000  a  year,  or  about  as  much  as  the  Governor  of  the  state. 
When  fees  and  commissions  constitute  totals  that  make  compensation 
excessive,  the  county  should  be  placed  on  a  salary  basis.  A  suitable 
line  of  demarcation  between  fee  and  salary  counties  seems  to  be  $75,000 
of  aggregate  taxes.  All  but  two  of  the  salary  counties  are  above  this 
level;  thirty-six  of  the  fee  counties  are  below;  fourteen  fee  counties 
are  above  it,  and  probably  ought  to  change  to  the  salary  plan.  A  main 
matter  in  the  fee  plan,  then,  is  accurate  public  knowledge  of  the  com- 
pensation received  by  each  county  officer.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
guaranteed  salary,  in  the  absence  of  authoritative  supervision,  as 
under  the  present  system,  removes  the  incentive  to  official  diligence 
and  faithfulness. 

The  theory  underlying  the  salary  plan  is  that  if  the  fees  and  com- 
missions, which  in  North  Carolina  amount  to  something  like  a  million 
and  a  quarter  dollars  a  year,  are  faithfully  collected  and  honestly 
turned  into  the  county  treasury,  they  would  create  a  fund  sufficient 


CAROLINA  CLTJB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  183 

to  discharge  all  salary  obligations  in  fifty-odd  counties  of  the  state 
and  leave  an  appreciable  residue  to  be  applied  to  general  governmental 
benefits — schools,  roads,  sinking  funds,  interest  accounts,  and  so  on. 
At  present  the  fee  funds  are  small  and  tend  to  become  smaller  year  by 
year  in  all  salary  counties,  and  hence  the  salary  plan,  without  authori- 
tative overhead  supervision,  simply  adds  burdens  to  the  general  tax- 
payer and  denies  him  the  surpluses  properly  accruing  under  good  gov- 
ernment. The  real  disadvantages  of  the  salary  plan,  then,  are  lack  of 
incentive  to  collect  all  fees  and  commissions,  and  the  absence  of  au- 
thoritative supervision  to  insure  that  all  fees  and  commissions  col- 
lected are  honestly  accounted  for.  Under  either  the  fee  or  the  salary 
system,  county  officers  must  be  compensated,  and  they  ought  to  be 
compensated  with  salaries  sufficiently  large  to  secure  and  reward  first- 
class  business  ability  in  officeholders.  Hence  our  second  program  pro- 
posal. 

2.  A  State  Supervision  of  County  Accounts. 

The  local  supervision  of  county  accounts  has  been  weighed  in  the 
balance  and  found  wanting  as  a  system.  Thirty  of  the  salary  coun- 
ties in  North  Carolina  have  instituted  some  sort  of  local  accounting 
and  auditing — manifestly  insufficient  and  incompetent,  while  thirteen 
salary  counties  have  no  auditing  arrangement  whatever.  The  constant 
supervision  by  such  a  chief  executive  as  we  propose  in  the  county 
chairman  looks  toward  a  careful  discharge  of  duties  in  all  offices,  but 
what  is  especially  necessary  for  maximum  efficiency  is  the  establish- 
ment of  a  uniform  state-wide  system  of  county  accounting  and  report- 
ing. Complementary  and  incidental  thereto  is  the  maintenance  of  an 
effective  system  of  county  account  auditing.  Then,  and  then  alone, 
will  the  citizens  of  the  county  have  an  accurate  knowledge  of  county 
assets  and  liabilities,  incomes  and  expenditures,  fees,  commissions, 
and  salaries. 

To  accomplish  this  purpose  most  effectively,  state  control  is  a  pre- 
requisite, and  the  initial  step  would  be  the  creation  of  a  Bureau  of 
County  Account  Control  in  the  office  of  the  State  Auditor,  and  under 
his  direction  and  supervision. 

The  primary  duties  appertaining  to  this  office  would  fall  into  two 
classes : 

1.  The  Establishment  of  a  Uniform  System,  of  County  Accounts  and 
Reports. — The  County  Account  Comptroller  should  formulate  and  pre- 
scribe a  uniform  system  of  accounting  and  reporting  for  each  county 
office,  especially  sheriffs,  treasurers,  clerks  of  courts,  and  registers  of 
deeds.  Such  a  system  should  provide  for  forms,  as  few  and  as  simple 
as  possible,  showing  liabilities,  assets  and  the  location  and  condition 
thereof,  sources  of  income,  the  amounts  due  and  received  from  each 
source,  the  amounts  expended  for  each  purpose,  the  amounts  on  hand 


184  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

or  turned  over  to  the  treasurer,  and  so  on  and  on.  To  facilitate  the 
working  of  the  plan,  the  State  Comptroller  of  County  Accounts  should 
prepare  a  manual  of  accounting  and  reporting  procedures,  showing  in 
detail  just  how  the  general  books  and  accounts  should  be  kept,  how  to 
close  the  books,  and  how  to  prepare  uniform  financial  and  operating 
statements  for  each  office  and  fund.  The  chairman  of  the  Board  of 
County  Commissioners  should  be  ready  at  all  times  to  assist  in  the 
preparation  of  these  reports,  should  collect  them  periodically,  pref- 
erably each  quarter,  and  transmit  them  to  the  board.  Through  the 
chairman,  the  board  should  take  all  necessary  action  relative  to  delays, 
variations,  and  inconsistencies  in  regard  to  these  reports.  Each  board 
of  county  commissioners  should  be  charged,  under  penalty,  with  the 
preparation  of  an  annual  report  or  balance  sheet,  based  upon  the 
individual  reports  of  the  respective  county  officers,  showing  the  assets 
and  liabilities  of  each  office,  and,  for  the  county  as  a  whole,  unit  costs 
and  disbursements  for  specific  purposes,  and  so  on.  Separate  accounts 
should  be  kept  for  each  appropriation,  showing  separately  the  pay- 
ments for  salaries,  for  other  personal  services,  and  for  supplies,  dis- 
tinguishing payments  for  ordinary  expenses  from  payments  for  con- 
struction work  and  other  extraordinary  purposes.  This  report  should 
be  submitted  to  the  State  Comptroller  of  County  Accounts  as  a  basis 
for  an  official  state  report  of  consolidated  county  accounts. 

2.  The  Maintenance  of  a  State-wide  System  of  Auditing  County  Ac- 
counts.— In  this  respect  the  State  Bureau  of  County  Account  Control 
would  simply  function  as  the  present  Bank  Commission  does  for  state 
banks.  State  control  over  local  public  authorities  is  surely  equal  in 
importance  to  the  control  which  has  been  exercised  by  the  state  over 
private  corporations.  The  guiding  principle  of  such  supervision  is 
mainly  that  of  friendly  instruction,  counsel,  guidance,  and  warning 
whenever  necessary.  It  should  not  and  would  not  operate  as  an  incur- 
sion upon  the  rights  and  duties  of  county  officeholders,  but  rather  as 
an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  state  to  reduce  to  a  minimum  the  likelihood 
of  error,  confusion,  and  dishonesty  in  county  office  administration, 
and  to  substitute  in  its  stead  simple  accuracy  and  uniformity. 

The  State  Comptroller  of  County  Accounts  should  be  charged  with 
the  duty  of  examining  personally  or  through  his  assistants  the  accounts 
and  financial  affairs  of  every  county  at  least  once  a  year;  and  at  the 
end  of  the  fiscal  year  to  audit  the  books,  records,  and  accounts  of  each 
county  officer.  On  every  such  examination,  inquiry  should  be  made 
as  to  whether  the  laws  of  the  state,  the  requirements  of  the  County 
Account  Comptroller,  and  the  regulations  of  the  County  Board  of 
Commissioners  have  been  complied  with  in  every  respect;  and  into 
the  methods  and  accuracy  of  the  accounts  and  reports,  and  the  finan- 
cial condition  of  the  county.  The  State  Comptroller  and  his  assistants 
should  be  authorized  by  law  to  enter  any  county  office,  to  inspect  any 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  1ST.  C.  185 

books,  papers,   or   documents  therein,  and  to  compel  the  attendance 
of  officers  and  witnesses  necessary  for  the  proper  examination  or  audit 
of  county  accounts. — Charles  L.  Nichols,  Chairman  Sub-Committee  on 
County  Finances. 
April  19,  1920. 


CIVIC  REFORM  STUDIES:    STATE  AND  LOCAL 

Outline 

1.  State  Problems. 

(1)  A  budget  bureau  and  an  executive  budget,  as  in  South  Carolina, 
Virginia,  and  thirty-eeven  other  states. 

(2)  A  state  purchasing  agent,  as  in  Michigan  and  other  states. 

(3)  Uniform  departmental  and  institutional  accounting,  as  in  Michi- 
gan and  other  states. 

(4)  The  consolidation  of  state  boards,  bureaus,  and  commissions,  as 
in  Illinois  and  Massachusetts. 

(5)  The  Australian  ballot,  as  in  forty-two  states;  our  state  primary 
laws. 

(6)  A    state    constabulary,    as   in    Texas,    Tennessee,    Pennsylvania, 
New  York. 

2.  County  Problems. 

(1)  Unified  county  government  under  responsible  headship;  county 
budgets. 

(2)  Uniform  county  accounting  and  reporting,  as  in  Ohio,  Indiana, 
and  other  states. 

(3)  The  state-wide  auditing  of  county  accounts,  as  a  bureau  of  the 
State  Auditor's  office,  as  in  Ohio,  Florida,  Minnesota,  Massachusetts, 
Wyoming,  and  other  states. 

(4)  A  definite  extension  of  local  self-rule,  under  state  conditions, 
regulation,  and  supervision. 

(5)  Our  township  incorporation  law,  and  our  community  organiza- 
tion bureau;  policies  and  plans,  etc. 

Bibliography 

Reading  references  on  Civic  Reforms,  state  and  local,  for  the  North 
Carolina  Club  Committee.  All  the  books,  bulletins,  clippings,  etc.,  are 
ready  at  hand  in  the  seminar  room  of  the  University  Rural  Social 
Science  Department. 

1.  State  Studies,  (a)  Consolidation  of  administrative  departments; 
(b)  Uniform  departmental  accounting  and  reporting;  (c)  A  state 
purchasing  agent;  (d)  A  state  budget;  (e)  The  Australian  ballot; 
our  state  primary  law;  (f)  State  constabularies. 


186  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

(a)  Administratiye  Consolidation  in  the  Various  States — Report  of 
the  New  York  Commission  on  State  Reconstruction,  October  10,  1919. 
pp.  235-301,  and  411. 

Movement  for  the  Reorganization  of  State  Administration,  by  Charles 
Groves  Haines— University  of  Texas  Bulletin,  No.  1848. 

Administrative  Reorganization  in  Illinois,  by  John  M.  Matthews. — 
National  Municipal  Review,  Nov.,  1920. 

-  Newspaper   clippings — University   Rural   Social   Science   Files, 
No.  354.1. 

Administrative  Consolidation  in  Illinois  and  other  States — Report 
of  the  Illinois  Committee  on  State  Efficiency  and  Economy,  pp.  7-30. 

Administrative  Consolidation  in  State  Governments — A.  E.  Buck. 
National  Municipal  Review,  November,  1919.  28  pp. 

How  It  Works  in  Idaho — Governor  D.  W.  Davis.    Ibid. 

Taxes  and  The  Short  Ballot,  Twenty-five  Governors  Recommend  Ad- 
ministrative Reorganization. — H.  W.  Dodds,  National  Municipal  Re- 
view, March,  1921. 

(b)  Uniform   Departmental  Accounting   in   Michigan — Act  No.   71, 
Public  Acts  of  Michigan,  1919. 

(c)  A  State  Purchasing  Agent  in  Michigan— Act  No.  61,  Public  Acts 
of  Michigan,  1919. 

(d)  State  Budget  Systems — Bulletins  of  the  Massachusetts  Consti- 
tutional Convention,  1917-18.    pp.  51-105. 

In  New  York,  Report  of  the  New  York  Reconstruction  Commis- 
sion, October  10,  1919.     pp.  301-365,  393. 

In  Michigan — Act  No.  98,  Public  Acts  of  Michigan,  1919. 

In  Illinois— The  Civil  Administrative  Code  of  Illinois,    pp.  18-20. 

In  Alabama — Legislative  Message  of  Governor  Thomas  E.  Kilby, 

July  8,  1919.    pp.  4,  13,  15. 

-  In   South   Carolina — Budget   Law   of   1919.     University   Rural 
Social  Science  Files,  No.  354.9. 

In  Illinois.    First  Budget  Report — Omar  H.  Wright,  Director  of 

Finance,  1919. 

A  National  Budget — Newspaper  clippings.  University  Rural  Social 
Science  Files,  No.  353.2. 

How  the  Biggest  Business  in  the  World  is  Run — Donald  Wilhelm. 
Saturday  Evening  Post,  December  15,  1919. 

A  Little  History  of  Pork— Chester  Collins  Maxey.  National  Munici- 
pal Review,  December,  1919. 

Budget  Making  as  a  Basis  for  Social  Work — Allen  and  Blakey.  The 
Survey,  May  24,  1919. 

British  Budget  System — Herbert  N.  Casson.  University  Rural  Social 
Science  Files,  No.  353.2. 

(e)  The  State  Primary  Law  in  North  Carolina— Chapter  101,  Public 
Laws  of  1915. 


CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N".  C.  187 

Discussion  of — Newspaper  clippings.  University  Rural  Social 

Science  Files,  No.  324.34. 

The  Australian  Ballot  in  North  Carolina — Press  item.    Ibid. 

American  Ballot  Laws,  1888-1910 — Arthur  Crosby  Ludington.  New 
York  State  Education  Department,  1911.  30  cents. 

Organized  Democracy:  An  introduction  to  the  study  of  American 
politics — Frederick  Albert  Cleveland.  Longmans  and  Company,  New 
York,  1913.  $2.50. 

Australian  Ballot  System — John  Henry  Wigmore.  Boston  Book  Com- 
pany, 1889.  $1.50. 

History  of  the  Australian  Ballot  System  in  the  United  States — Uni- 
versity of  Chicago  Press,  1917.  102  pp. 

(f)  The  County— H.   S.  Gilbertson.  The  National  Short  Ballot  Or- 
ganization, New  York.     pp.  140. 

Local  Government  in  Counties,  Towns,  and  Villages — John  A.  Fairlie. 
The  Century  Company,  New  York.  pp.  267-71. 

The  Pennsylvania  State  Police — Saturday  Evening  Post,  January  19, 
1918. 

The  World's  Work,  January,  1918. 

The  Cossacks  and  the  Steel  Strikers — Literary  Digest,  December  27, 
1919. 

New  York  State  Troopers — Frank  Parker  Stockbridge.  World's 
Work,  January,  1918.  » 

Why  New  York  Needs  a  State  Police — Committee  for  a  State  Police, 
7  East  Forty-second  Street,  New  York. 

Upholding  the  Law  in  Tennessee — Newspaper  clippings.  University 
Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  352.41. 

State  Constabularies— Editorial,  New  York  Times,  March  13,  1921. 

(g)  A   Children's   Code  Commission — The  reconstruction  Program 
of  South  Carolina,  by  Hastings  H.  Hart.    15  pp. 

Missouri  Children's  Code  Commission,  1918 — Executive  Offices,  Jef- 
ferson City,  Mo.  231  pp. 

Missouri  Children's  Bills— The  Survey,  June  21,  1919,  112  East  Nine- 
teenth Street,  New  York. 

Justice  and  the  Poor — Reginald  Heber  Smith.  Carnegie  Foundation 
for  the  Advancement  of  Learning,  576  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York. 

2.  County  Problems,  (a)  Unified  county  government  under  respon- 
sible headship;  (b)  Uniform  county  accounting  and  reporting;  (c) 
Local  self-rule;  (d)  Township  incorporation. 

(a)  Local  government  in  Counties,  Towns,  and  Tillages— John  A. 
Fairlie.  The  Century  Company,  New  York.  pp.  84,  91,  108,  112. 

The  Jungle  of  County  Government — E.  C.  Branson.  The  North  Caro- 
lina Club  Year-Book  on  County  Government  and  County  Affairs  in 
North  Carolina,  pp.  7-11. 


188  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

The  County — H.  S.  Gilbertson.  The  National  Short  Ballot  Associa- 
tion, New  York.  pp.  115,  175-80,  251-6. 

The  Movement  for  County  Government  Reform  in  Michigan,  by  C. 
Roy  Hatton — National  Municipal  Review,  November,  1920. 

County  Government  in  Oregon,  by  Henry  E.  Reed — Ibid.,  February, 
1921. 

County  and  Local  Government  in  Illinois — Bulletin  No.  12,  Legisla- 
tive Reference  Bureau,  Springfield,  O. 

A  Plan  of  Unified  County  Government,  in  County  Administration — 
C.  C.  Maxey.  Macmillan  Company,  New  York.  pp.  45-62. 

(b>  County  Budgets,  pp.  178-80— Ibid 

Making  the  County  Budget — Westchester  Research  Bureau,  15  Court 
Street,  White  Plains,  New  York.  20  pp. 

County  Budgets  and  Their  Construction — O.  G.  Cartwright,  Director 
Westchester  Research  Bureau,  White  Plains,  New  York. 

Mimeograph  Syllabus  of  Course  in  County  Government,  by  E.  C. 
Branson,  Department  of  Rural  Social  Science,  University  of  North  Caro- 
lina. 

North  Carolina  Club  Year-Book  on  the  County  Government  and  County 
Affairs  in  North  Carolina,  pp.  7-11,  80-92. 

Local  Government  in  Counties,  Towns,  and  Villages — John  A. 
Fairlie.  Century  Company,  New  York.  pp.  255-63,  272. 

The  County — H.  S.  Gilbertson.  National  Short  Ballot  Association, 
New  York.  pp.  122,  181,  184-5. 

The  Illinois  Law  on  Uniform  Systems  of  Accounting  and  Reporting 
in  County  and  Other  Local  Offices — University  Rural  Social  Science 
Files,  No.  352.63. 

County  Accounting — University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No. 
352.63. 

(c)  Local  Self -Rule,  Legislation  in  Behalf  of. 

In  Nebraska — University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  352.6. 

Report  of  the  Committee  on  County  Government,  National  Municipal 

League — Ibid. 

The  County — H.  S.  Gilbertson.    pp.  146-50. 

Local  Government  in  Counties,  Towns,  and  Villages — John  A.  Fairlie. 
pp.  33-53,  63,  229. 

Reforms  Needed — University  Rural  Social  Science  Files,  No.  352.62. 

Fee  and  Salary  Systems — North  Carolina  Club  Year-Book  on 

County  Government  and  County  Affairs,    pp.  69-80. 

The  Short  Ballot — Gilbertson's  The  County,    pp.  169-70,  181. 

The  Short  Ballot  in  Various  States — Bulletins  of  the  Massachusetts 

Constitutional  Convention,  1917-18.    pp.  395-413. 

(d)  The  North  Carolina  Township  Incorporation  Law—  Chapter  128, 
Public  Laws  of  North  Carolina,  1917. 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  IN".  C.  189 

"North  Carolina  Club  Year-Book  on  County  Government  and  County 
Affairs,  pp.  41-49. 

The  North  Carolina  Scheme  of  Rural  Development — E.  C.  Branson. 
National  Social  Work  Conference,  315  Plymouth  Court,  Chicago. 

Civic  Reforms  Committee 

1.  A  Budget  Bureau,  State  Purchasing  Agent,  and  Uniform  Depart- 
mental Accounting:    M.  M.  Jernigan,  Sampson  County,  Dunn. 

2.  Consolidation   of   State   Boards,   the   Australian   Ballot,   and  Our 
State  Primary  Laws;  a  State  Constabulary:    W.  D.  Harris,  Lee  County, 
Sanford. 

3.  Unified  County  Government,  Uniform  County  Accounting  and  Re- 
porting, and  State-wide  Auditing  of  County  Accounts:  Charles  Nichols, 
Transylvania  County,  Brevard. 

4.  Extension  of  Local  Self-Rule,  Township  Incorporation  Law,  and 
Community  Organization  Bureau:  J.  T.  Wilson,  Forsyth  County,  Rural 
Hall. 


190  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  NEW  DAY  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 
The  Old  Order 

North  Carolina  has  long  been  an  agricultural  civilization  both  in 
population  and  in  wealth  production.  An  overwhelming  majority  of 
her  producers  of  primary  wealth  live  in  the  countryside,  and  the  bulk 
of  her  new  wealth  from  year  to  year  has  been  farm  wealth.  The 
aggregate  of  this  wealth  has  grown  into  enormous  proportions.  In 
1919  it  was  seven  hundred  and  fifty  million  dollars,  counting  crops, 
live  stock,  and  live  stock  products;  it  was  more  than  a  half  billion 
dollars  in  1920,  or  something  like  three  times  the  total  of  ten  years 
ago.  In  agriculture  the  producing  unit  is  the  farm  family,  and  our 
farm  families  are  scattered  throughout  the  vast  open  spaces  of  North 
Carolina,  not  in  farm  communities  but  in  solitary  dwellings,  only  seven 
to  the  square  mile  the  state  over,  fewer  than  four  to  the  square  mile 
in  ten  counties,  and  fewer  than  seventeen  in  our  most  populous  county. 
They  were  settled  in  social  insulation  in  earlier  times,  and  so  they 
remain  to  this  good  day.  Agricultural  production  is  small-scale  pro- 
duction by  small  producing  groups  that  are  or  may  be  self-sufficing, 
existence  necessities  considered.  The  inward  urge  to  mass  organiza- 
tion for  business  or  social  or  civic  advantage  is  therefore  feeble,  and 
the  result  has  been  poor  country  roads,  poor  country  schools  and  ex- 
cessive illiteracy,  inadequate  attention  by  country  people  to  health  and 
sanitation,  an  inadequate  sense  of  civic  as  well  as  social  responsibility 
in  local  areas,  honest  but  inefficient  and  wasteful  county  government 
as  a  rule  and,  all  in  all,  small-scale  thinking  about  the  big-scale  con- 
cerns of  the  commonwealth.  The  mass-mind  of  North  Carolina — what 
we  call  the  genius  of  our  people — must  be  spelled  at  in  abc  terms  of 
this  sort,  and  he  knows  little  of  the  state  who  knows  the  story  of 
political  events  apart  from  radical  conditions  and  causes  like  these, 
for  out  of  them  our  civic  structures  have  grown. 

The  glory  of  North  Carolina  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  has  always  been 
a  land  of  free  democracy — unpurchasable  and  unroutable,  unafraid  and 
unabashed.  We  have  always  been  what  Emerson  celebrated — free,  un- 
terrified  American  citizens.  But  also  it  is  a  land  of  overweening 
individualism,  and  imperious  localism.  It  has  always  been  so  and 
inevitably  so,  because  our  civilization  has  been  rooted  in  ruralism. 
Our  fish  and  game  laws  perfectly  illustrate  this  fundamental  fact. 
Think  of  fourteen  different  deer  seasons  in  nine  contiguous  counties, 
forty  different  quail  seasons  in  the  state  at  large,  and  even  a  larger 
number  of  local  laws  in  our  fish  and  oyster  areas.  And  so  it  has 


ISToRTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  1ST.  C.  191 

always  been  in  every  field  of  our  civic  life.  The  excessive  private-local 
public  laws  of  the  state  perfectly  express  the  dominant  private-local 
mindedness  of  North  Carolina.  The  rural  mind  is  private  and  local — 
almost  inescapably  so.  And  the  culture  of  the  countryman  has  long 
been  the  mainspring  and  the  measure  of  our  civilization.  As  the 
countryman  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  are  we  in  North  Carolina — or  so 
it  long  has  been.  Both  the  best  and  the  worst  of  us  lies  in  this 
fundamental  fact. 

A  New  Day  in  Carolina 

But  there  is  a  new  day  in  Carolina.  The  transformation  has  been 
wrought  in  quite  unconscious  response  to  the  elemental  urges  of  life 
and  livelihood  during  the  last  few  years — mainly  the  last  five  years. 
Agriculture  has  given  place  to  manufacture  as  the  primary  interest 
of  North  Carolina.  A  machine-made  civilization  is  conditioning  and 
supplanting  the  old-time  homespun,  hand-made  civilization  of  the  state. 
The  day  of  great  cities  is  at  hand,  and  the  fullness  of  their  greatness 
in  the  coming  years  does  not  yet  appear.  Out  of  fractional  we  have 
moved  into  integral  suffrage  and  sovereignty.  Out  of  private-minded- 
ness  we  are  moving  into  civic  and  social-mindedness;  out  of  pinching 
poverty  into  abundant  wealth;  out  of  small-scale  into  big-scale  think- 
ing about  the  vital  matters  of  a  noble  civilization. 

The  new  day  in  North  Carolina  is  a  day  of  industrial  establishments 
and  enterprises,  a  day  of  swiftly  growing  cities,  a  day  of  abounding 
wealth,  a  day  of  increasing  willingness  to  convert  our  wealth  into 
commonwealth  culture  and  character,  a  day  of  undivided  civic  privi- 
lege, undivided  social  wholeness,  and  undivided  sovereign  integrity. 

The  New  Order 

The  day  of  industrial  supremacy  is  at  hand  in  North  Carolina.  We 
lead  the  South  in  the  number  of  industrial  enterprises,  in  the  number 
of  wage  earners  employed,  in  the  variety  and  value  of  our  industrial 
output.  And  we  are  distinguished  among  the  states  of  the  Union  by 
a  large  number  of  small  enterprises  rather  than  a  small  number  of 
large  enterprises.  Which  means  that  so  far  we  have  escaped  the  con- 
centration of  wealth  that  has  always  meant  in  every  land  and  country 
progress  and  poverty,  magnificence  and  misery  side  by  side.  The  re- 
markable diffusion  of  wealth  is  a  fundamental  fact  of  North  Carolina. 
None  of  us  are  very  rich  as  yet,  but  few  of  us  are  very  poor.  We  have 
more  cotton  mills  and  more  spindles,  we  consume  more  raw  cotton 
and  produce  a  greater  volume  and  variety  of  cotton  textiles  than  any 
other  state  in  the  South.  In  cotton  manufacture,  we  doff  our  hats  to 
Massachusetts  alone,  remembering  the  while  that  her  almshouse  and 
outside  paupers  outnumber  ours  five  to  one.  We  have  right  around 


192  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

600  cotton  mills — nearly  100  in  a  single  county.  We  are  expanding  our 
textile  industry  more  rapidly  than  any  other  Southern  state.  Last  year 
we  built  thirty-one  new  mills  and  brought  into  operation  more  than 
a  half  million  new  spindles.  Three-fourths  of  the  new  spindles  and 
new  looms  in  the  South  last  year  were  set  going  in  North  Carolina 
alone.  Not  only  does  North  Carolina  lead  the  industrial  South,  but 
factory  communities  in  North  Carolina  at  last  produce  greater  wealth 
than  all  other  occupational  groups  combined. 

The  rise  of  manufacture  into  undisputed  primacy  is  the  startling 
story  of  a  brief  five-year  period  in  our  history.  Agriculture  no  longer 
leads  in  North  Carolina;  manufacture  leads  for  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  the  state.  It  means  that  North  Carolina  has  moved  up  from 
small-scale  farm  production  on  domestic  levels  into  big-scale  factory 
production  upon  commercial  levels.  The  volume  of  wealth  created 
by  our  factories  has  been  doubled  and  trebled  and  quadrupled  in  quan- 
tity since  1914,  and  its  value  has  been  increased  even  more  amazingly. 
The  creation  of  industrial  values  shows  nearly  a  sixfold  increase  dur- 
ing the  last  five  years,  against  a  threefold  increase  in  the  value  of  our 
agricultural  output  during  the  last  ten  years. 

A  Day  of  Great  Cities 

Developing  industries  necessarily  mean  rapidly  developing  cities. 
Our  town  and  city  dwellers  ten  years  ago  were  barely  more  than  a 
half  million  all  told.  Today  they  number  some  eight  hundred  thousand 
souls.  The  increase  has  been  around  sixty  per  cent  in  ten  years.  Until 
recently  North  Carolina  has  been  distinguished  as  a  state  of  small 
towns  and  cities;  and  we  still  have  sixty-eight  counties  in  the  state 
containing  no  town  of  as  many  as  five  hundred  families.  Twenty 
years  ago  we  had  only  twenty-seven  towns  of  twenty-five  hundred 
inhabitants  or  more;  today  we  have  fifty-seven  such  towns,  and  two 
of  them  are  near  the  fifty  thousand  mark.  It  is  a  day  of  great  cities 
foundationed  on  great  industrial  enterprises;  and  the  cities  of  this  state 
with  superior  geographic,  economic,  and  residential  advantages  will 
grow  so  large  during  the  next  quarter-century  that  in  the  coming  years 
we  shall  many-a-time  rub  our  eyes  in  amazement.  I  venture  nothing 
in  venturing  this  prophecy. 

North  Carolina  is  at  last  moving  into  the  flood  tide  of  modern  indus- 
trialism— belatedly  to  be  sure,  but  with  marvelous  speed  since  the  early 
eighties.  We  have  long  been  rural,  but  ten  years  ago  we  were  being 
urbanized  more  rapidly  than  thirty-six  other  states  of  the  Union,  and 
the  cityward  drift  has  been  immensely  accelerated  of  late  by  the  ex- 
pulsive power  of  country  life  on  the  one  hand  and  the  attractive  power 
of  industrial  centers  on  the  other. 

The  cityward  drift  of  country  people  creates  a  host  of  new  problems, 
economic,  social,  and  civic.  Cities  are  everywhere  human  aggrega- 


NOETH  CAKOLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  193 

tions;  what  they  everywhere  lack  is  social  integration— on  a  territorial 
basis,  which  is  democracy,  and  not  on  an  occupational  basis,  which  is 
sovietism.  The  forces  that  unite  men  must  somehow  become  stronger 
than  the  forces  that  divide.  The  crowds  in  great  cities  look  like  noth- 
ing so  much  as  a  lot  of  crabs  in  the  bottom  of  a  bucket,  each  crawling 
over  all  the  rest  trying  to  get  on  top.  It  is  a  sorry  spectacle.  It  keeps 
a  body  wondering  whether  or  not  an  enduring  civilization  can  be 
fashioned  in  this  wise. 

The  cityward  drift  spells  the  doom  of  drowsy  little  towns  lacking 
civic  pride  and  enterprise  sufficient  to  develop  superior  residential 
advantages.  When  country  people  move  they  go  with  a  hop-skip-and- 
jump  over  dull  little  towns  into  census-size  cities — in  this  and  every 
other  state.  As  a  result,  ninety-three  of  our  little  towns  dwindled  in 
population  during  the  last  ten  years,  and  forty  more  faded  from  the 
map.  The  lesson  the  1920  census  reads  to  small-town  capitalists  who 
own  building  lots,  enjoy  rent  revenues,  run  stores,  and  operate  banks 
is,  "Make  your  home  town  the  best  place  on  earth  to  live  in,  develop 
local  manufactures  set  in  garden  cities,  or  move  in  self-defense  into 
progressive  centers,  or  reconcile  yourselves  to  stagnant  community 
life  with  all  its  menaces  to  family  integrity  and  business  opportunity." 
If  the  414  little  country  towns  of  North  Carolina  can  be  brought  into 
right  relationships  with  the  surrounding  trade  areas — as  for  instance 
in  Garnett,  Kansas — they  will  not  only  save  themselves,  but  also  the 
country  regions  round  about.  The  small-town  approach  to  country  life 
problems  is  a  hopeful  approach,  if  only  country  bankers,  country  mer- 
chants and  country  ministers  can  be  brought  to  realize  it. 

But  also  the  cityward  drift  means  that  the  long  neglected  problems 
of  the  open  country  must  now  be  attacked  with  sympathetic  intelli- 
gence, and  by  the  only  people  on  earth  who  can  solve  these  problems — 
namely,  the  country  people  themselves.  Else  the  economic  and  social 
ills  of  sparse  populations,  unrestrained  individualism,  and  social  aloof- 
ness will  progressively  destroy  our  country  civilization — as  surely  in 
this  state  as  in  the  great  industrial  areas  of  the  North  and  East. 

The  country  civilization  of  Carolina  can  be  saved  if  the  culture  of 
the  farmer  can  be  rightly  related  to  the  farmer's  agriculture;  if  his 
home  and  children  can  be  set  distinctly  above  his  fields  and  farm 
animals,  and  barns  and  bank  balances;  if  the  eighteen  hundred  thou- 
sand open  country  dwellers  of  the  state  can  come  to  a  keen  realization 
of  country-life  deficiencies  and  develop  mass  organization  for  com- 
munity advantages.  But  in  the  main  it  is  the  job  of  the  country  people 
themselves,  and  so  far  their  attention  has  been  arsorbed  by  the  hazards 
of  farming  as  a  business  and  by  business  organization  for  economic 
advantage.  Country  people  have  given  scant  attention  to  the  social 
problems  of  the  countryside;  they  only  dimly  realize  that  country 

13 


194  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

homes,  country  schools,  country  churches,  and  county  governments 
must  function  on  far  higher  levels  if  the  country  end  of  our  civiliza- 
tion is  to  be  a  rich  asset  in  commonwealth  development  in  the  days 
at  hand  and  ahead.  To  this  end  there  is  need  for  a  Country  Life 
Association  in  North  Carolina — an  association  of  country  people  re- 
lated to  the  State  Social  Work  Conference  on  the  one  hand  and  the 
American  Country  Life  Association  on  the  other.  The  State  College 
of  Agriculture  and  Engineering  could  organize  and  lead  such  a  move- 
ment with  clear  chances  of  success. 

A  Day  of  Abundant  Wealth 

The  new  day  in  Carolina  is  a  day  of  abundant  wealth,  town  and 
country,  farm  and  factory.  We  have  grown  rich  during  the  last  five 
years  and  apparently  we  are  innocently  unaware  of  it.  The  state  has 
at  last  moved  definitely  and  finally  out  of  a  long  period  of  pinching 
poverty  into  overflowing  wealth — out  of  two  and  a  half  centuries  of 
deficit-economy  into  a  new  era  of  surplus-economy;  and  what  we 
need  to  learn  is  to  reckon  with  present  problems  and  future  necessi- 
ties in  terms  of  wealth  instead  of  penury.  Since  1915  our  farms  and 
factories,  forests  and  fisheries,  mines  and  quarries,  have  been  creating 
brand  new  wealth  at  an  average  rate  of  a  billion  dollars  a  year — all 
told,  five  billions  of  brand  new  wealth  within  this  brief  period  of 
time.  And  the  increases  have  not  been  in  values  alone,  but  in  quan- 
tities as  well — in  larger  crops  of  cotton,  tobacco,  and  corn;  in  the 
doubled  and  quadrupled  output  of  our  cotton  mills,  tobacco  factories, 
and  furniture  establishments;  in  immensely  increased  trade  activities, 
bank  resources,  and  bank  account  savings;  in  material  good  things 
in  multiplied  abundance  in  and  around  our  town  and  country  homes. 
We  have  two  hundred  and  fifty  million  dollars  safely  laid  away  in 
liberty  bonds,  war  stamps,  and  bank  account  savings,  and  we  are 
drawing  an  interest  income  of  ten  millions  a  year  from  these  invest- 
ments alone.  There  has  never  before  been  anything  like  this  state  of 
affairs  in  the  entire  history  of  the  state.  True,  we  shall  have  two 
hundred  and  forty  millions  less  of  farm  money  this  year,  and  it  is  a 
cruel  calamity  for  merchants  and  bankers,  as  well  as  farmers;  but 
it  is  childish  to  conclude  therefore  that  the  state  is  facing  bank- 
ruptcy, and  it  will  be  fatal  to  sacrifice  birthrights  for  pottage  in  the 
famine-fashion  of  Esau.  The  fundamental  fact  is  five  billions  of  gain 
against  two  hundred  and  forty  millions  of  loss.  The  people  of  this 
state  are  still  solvent  by  a  safe  margin  of  many  billions.  We  are  still 
rich  enough  to  spend  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  million  dollars  a 
year  for  manufactured  tobacco,  automobiles  and  automobile  parts, 
carpets  and  superfine  clothing,  and  candy. 

What  the  people  of  this  state  spent  last  year  for  state  support,  church 
support,  and  college  education  was  forty-three  thousand  dollars  a  day. 


NOKTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  IT.  OF  IsT.  C.  195 

What  we  spent  for  motor  cars,  manufactured  tobacco,  rich  apparel, 
and  candy — these  four  luxuries  and  comforts  alone — was  four  hundred 
and  thirty-two  thousand  dollars  a  day. 

It  is  plainer  than  print  that  we  have  money  in  abundance  in  North 
Carolina  to  spend  for  anything  we  really  want,  and  if  we  do  not  spend 
money  abundantly  upon  commonwealth  enterprises,  church  causes, 
and  college  education,  it  simply  means  that  in  our  heart  of  hearts  we 
do  not  believe  in  church  causes,  commonwealth  enterprises,  and  college 
education.  If  we  will  not  invest  liberally  in  public  schools,  public 
health,  public  highways,  and  public  welfare,  it  simply  means  that  in 
our  heart  of  hearts  we  do  not  believe  in  public  schools,  public  health, 
public  highways,  and  public  welfare.  Debates  upon  commonwealth  in- 
vestments can  no  longer  turn  upon  the  poverty  of  the  people  of  North 
Carolina — not  when  we  are  rich  enough  to  pay  one  hundred  and 
sixty-three  millions  of  taxes  into  the  federal  treasury  in  a  single  year 
— not  when  we  are  rich  enough  to  spend  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven 
millions  a  year  on  tobacco  products,  motor  cars,  luxurious  clothing, 
and  sweetmeats  alone. 

People  who  spend  fifty  millions  a  year  on  manufactured  tobacco  and 
twelve  millions  on  public  schools,  forty-seven  millions  on  motor  cars 
and  six  millions  on  churches,  thirty-five  millions  on  fine  apparel  and 
seven  millions  on  state  enterprises,  twenty-five  millions  on  confections 
and  two  and  a  half  millions  on  colleges,  may  be  poverty-stricken  in 
spirit,  but  they  are  not  poverty-stricken  in  purse.  And  if  we  will  not 
mend  these  shameful  ratios  somewhat  we  stand  convicted  of  wanton 
self-indulgence  and  graceless  unconcern  about  the  vital  things  of  a 
noble  civilization. 

Our  leaders  need  not  hesitate  to  lead.  The  highway  of  civilization 
is  strewn  thick  with  the  wrecks  of  parties,  but  it  is  yet  to  be  recorded 
that  any  party  was  ever  wrecked  on  a  program  of  progress  in  educa- 
tion. Party  supremacy  in  North  Carolina  is  and  forever  ought  to  be 
related  to  statesmanship  in  education,  health,  and  highways.  That 
party  will  live  longest  that  dares  most  for  the  vital  causes  of  the 
commonwealth. 

A  Day  of  Public  Spirit 

North  Carolina  is  moving  at  last  out  of  private-mindedness  into 
civic-  and  social-mindedness.  The  new  day  is  a  day  of  great  thinking 
about  the  great  concerns  of  the  state,  and  therein  lies  the  immense 
significance  of  the  inaugural  address  of  our  new  Governor.  We  are 
at  last  thinking  about  education,  health,  and  highways  in  terms  of 
millions  instead  of  paltry  thousands.  We  have  been  willing  to  double 
our  investment  in  public  school  properties  during  the  last  six  years. 
And  our  public  school  fund  for  support  rose  from  six  to  twelve  millions 
in  a  single  year.  In  thirty-five  years  we  have  moved  up  from  two 


196          STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

thousand  to  three  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  dollars  a  year  for 
public  health  work.  And  in  expenditures,  activities,  and  values, 
North  Carolina  ranks  among  the  first  ten  states  of  the  Union  in  public 
health  affairs.  During  the  last  six  years,  forty-one  laws  of  social 
import  have  gone  on  our  statute  books.  It  is  a  new  kind  of  legisla- 
tion in  North  Carolina,  and  during  the  last  few  years  we  have  moved 
forward  in  social  legislation  faster  than  any  other  state  in  the  South. 
It  has  been  epoch-making  legislation,  and  it  ushers  in  a  great  new 
era  in  North  Carolina.  Our  state  public  welfare  board,  our  county 
welfare  superintendents,  our  juvenile  courts  and  probation  officers  in 
every  county  and  in  every  city  with  ten  thousand  inhabitants  or  more, 
our  county  school  supervisors,  our  rural  township  incorporation  law, 
our  state  commission  charged  with  rural  organization  and  recreation, 
the  social  agencies  of  the  state  and  the  public  welfare  courses  of  our 
state  institutions,  have  all  together  put  us  distinctly  in  the  lead  in 
the  South.  North  Carolina  is  no  longer  a  valley  of  humiliation  located 
between  two  mountains  of  conceit,  as  we  have  been  accustomed  to  con- 
fess to  Virginians  and  South  Carolinians;  it  has  suddenly  become  the 
Valley  of  Decision  that  the  Prophet  Joel  saw  in  his  dream.  But  with 
Virginia  lying  on  the  north  and  South  Carolina  lying  on  the  south, 
it  has  been  difficult  to  get  the  truth  about  North  Carolina,  is  the  way 
a  wag  puts  it. 

Madam  How  and  Lady  Why 

But  space  forbids  any  discussion  of  certain  large  sections  of  my 
subject.  I  therefore  hurry  on  to  say  in  conclusion  that  the  mothers, 
wives,  and  daughters  of  the  state  at  last  stand  side  by  side  with 
fathers,  husbands,  and  sons  in  suffrage  rights,  civic  privilege,  and 
sovereign  integrity. 

Whatever  else  it  may  mean,  it  means  a  new  kind  of  attention  to 
civic  housekeeping  in  North  Carolina,  and,  approve  it  or  not,  the 
stupidest  politician  among  us  is  already  sensitively  aware  that  here- 
after he  must  reckon  with  Madam  How  and  Lady  Why. 

Now,  civic  housekeeping  is  one  thing  and  civic  housebuilding  is 
another.  The  one  has  been  the  job  of  men  during  the  long  centuries; 
the  other  is  woman's  job — her  main  job  in  her  new  estate.  Our  civic 
structures,  material  and  institutional,  have  been  reared  by  men.  Our 
capitols  and  our  courthouses  and  city  halls,  our  poorhouses  and  jails 
have  been  built  and  officered  and  for  the  most  part  filled  by  men.  Our 
state  and  national  constitutions,  our  statute  laws  and  municipal  ordi- 
nances, our  court  principles,  processes,  and  procedures,  have  been 
fashioned  by  men — primarily  to  protect  property  and  incidentally  or 
accidentally  to  safeguard  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness; 
and  men  are  great  housebuilders  but  poor  housekeepers — so  because 


NORTH  CAROLINA  CLUB,  U.  OF  N.  C.  197 

they  lack  the  housekeeping  instincts.  Our  civic  structures  have  been 
magnificent  to  look  upon  without,  but  within  they  have  been  bare  and 
ill-furnished  or  unfurnished.  Oftentimes  they  have  been  offensive 
to  physical  senses  and  moral  sensibilities  alike  and  uncomfortable  or 
unsafe  for  human  habitation. 

Perhaps  our  civic  structures — that  is  to  say,  our  social  institutions — 
do  not  need  to  be  rebuilt  from  ridgepole  to  cornerstone,  but  they  do 
need  to  be  swept  and  garnished  from  garret  to  cellar,  to  say  nothing 
of  deodorizing  and  disinfection ;  they  need  to  be  furnished  and  outfitted 
throughout  and  redded  up  daily  for  society  to  inhabit  in  comfort  and 
safety.  They  need  and  have  long  needed  the  civic  housekeeping  that 
is  necessary  to  an  improved  social  order.  And  if  woman  can  only 
conceive  her  particular  task  in  large  ways  human  welfare  problems 
will  speedily  come  to  be  the  largest  concern  of  legislatures,  congresses, 
and  courts  alike.  The  rapid  multiplication  of  homes  and  home  owners, 
the  safeguarding  of  home  life  and  community  life,  constructive  whole- 
some recreation,  the  renovation  of  jails  and  county  homes  and  chain- 
gang  camps,  liberal  investments  in  community  and  commonwealth 
progress  and  prosperity,  adequate  care  of  defective,  dependent,  ne- 
glected and  wayward  boys  and  girls,  child-placing  and  mothers'  pen- 
sions, county  or  county-group  hospitals,  regional  clinics  and  dispen- 
saries, law  and  order  leagues,  and  so  on  and  on — these  are  some  of 
the  tasks  of  civic  housekeeping  that  only  within  very  recent  years 
have  challenged  the  attention  of  our  legislators  and  that  are  never 
likely  to  receive  anything  like  adequate  attention  until  our  civic 
housekeepers  get  busy  at  their  tasks.  Not  the  filling  of  offices,  but 
the  fashioning  of  offices  fit  to  be  filled  and  the  choosing  of  choice 
spirits  fit  to  fill  them,  is  the  largest  detail  and  the  largest  order  in 
civic  housekeeping. 

I  have  the  faith  to  believe  that  the  part  women  will  play  in  the 
new  day  in  Carolina  will  make  a  most  significant  chapter  in  the  history 
of  the  state.  It  is  woman's  nature,  you  know,  to  see  the  things  that 
ought  to  be  done  and  straightway  to  set  about  doing  them,  whether 
they  can  be  done  or  not;  to  see  the  Palace  Beautiful  at  the  top  of  the 
Hill  Difficult  and  not  to  see  the  lions  in  the  way.  You  may  remember 
that  it  was  Christian,  not  Christiana,  that  saw  the  lions  ahead,  and 
that  Timorous  and  Mistrust,  the  calamity-howlers  of  The  Pilgrim's 
Progress,  were  men,  not  women.  This  keen  look  into  the  essential 
nature  of  woman  is  but  one  of  the  many  flashes  of  genius  that  place 
Bunyan  alongside  Milton  and  made  these  two,  in  Macaulay's  opinion, 
the  foremost  figures  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

I  am,  therefore,  venturing  the  prophecy  that  what  North  Carolina 
vitally  needs  she  at  last  stands  a  chance  of  receiving  in  this  new  day 
of  our  history.  I  close  in  the  faith  and  in  the  words  of  Henry  Timrod: 


198  STATE  RECONSTRUCTION  STUDIES 

"Ho!    woodsmen   of  the  mountain  side! 

Ho!  dwellers  in  the  vales! 
Ho!  ye  that  by  the  chafing  tide 
Have  roughened  in  the  gales! 
Oh,  could  you  like  your  women  feel, 

And  in  their  spirit  march, 
A  day  might  see  your  lines  of  steel 
Beneath  the  victor's  arch!" 

| 

— E.  C.  Branson,  Kenan  Professor  of  Rural  Social  Science,  University 
of  North  Carolina,  Presidential  address,  State  Social  Work  Conference, 
Raleigh,  January  25. 


\J\\C. 


EXTENSION  SERIES  BULLETINS. 

Extension  Series  Bulletins  are  published  occasionally  by  the  Uni- 
versity of  North  Carolina.     Below  is  a  list  of  Bulletins  which  will 
be  sent  you  upon  application,  for  the  prices  listed: 
2.  Addresses  on  Education  for  Use  in  Declaiming,  Essay  Writing,  and 
Reading.    1913.    Price  25c. 

8.  Cooperative  Institutions  Among  the  Farmers  of  Catawba  County. 

1914.    Price  25c. 

9.  Syllabus  of  Home-County  Club  Studies.    1914.    Price  25c. 
12.  The  Teaching  of  County  Geography.    1915.    Price  25c. 

21.  Measurement    of    Achievement    in    the    Fundamental    Elementary 

School  Subjects.     1917.     Price  25c. 

22.  Public  Discussion  and  Debate.     1917.     (Revised.)     Price  25c. 

23.  The  North  Carolina  Club  Year-Book,  1916-17,  on  Wealth  and  Welfare 

in  North  Carolina.    Price  25c. 
25.  Local  Study  Clubs.    1917.    Price  25c. 
27.  Standard  Educational  Tests  and  Measurements  as  a  Basis  for  a 

Cooperative  Plan.     1918.    Price  25c. 

29.  Comparative  Results  of  a  State-wide  Use  of  Standard  Tests  a:  i 

Measurements.     1918.     Price  25c. 

30.  The  North  Carolina  Club  Year-Book,  1917-1918,  on  County  Govern- 

ment and  Counti/  Affairs  in  North  Carolina.    Price  75c.     Cloth, 
price  $1.25. 

31.  Compulsory  Military  Training.    1918.    Price  25c. 

32.  A  Study  of  the  Public  Schools  in  Orange  County,  North  Carolina. 

1919.     Price  25c. 

33.  The  State  and  County  Council.    Price  25c. 

34.  Immigration  Restriction.     1919.     Price  50c. 

35.  State  Reconstruction,  a  Syllabus  of  the  North  Carolina  Club  Studies 

at  the  University  of  North  Carolina.    1919.    Price  25c. 

36.  Plays  for  Amateurs.    1920.    Price  50c. 

37.  Further  Use  of  Standard  Tests  and  Scales  as  a  Basis  for  a  Co- 

operative Research  Plan.    Price  25c. 

38.  The  Construction  of  Schoolhouses.    Price  50c. 

39.  The  Teaching  of  Geometry.    Price  50c. 

40.  Collective  Bargaining.     Price  50c. 

41.  N.    C.    Club    Year-Book— 1919-1920— State    Reconstruction    Studies. 

Price  70c. 

MONEY  ORDER,   CHECK  OR  STAMPS  ACCEPTED 
For  further  information,  address 

BUREAU  OF  EXTENSION, 
University  of  North  Carolina, 

Chapel  Hill,  N.  C. 


